rance.

And Garth,--who was used to the bestowal, rather than the receipt of
favours,--accepted this woman's encouragement as gratefully as an
enamoured subaltern. Desmond's recent tactics had but served to convince
him that the walls of Jericho must be carried by assault. Whatever the
outcome, the thrill of conquest must at least be his.

The six-foot roadway up to Kajiar gave him ample excuse for riding
needlessly close to his companion; and he inclined himself closer in
talking, thus giving a provocative flavour to ordinary speech.

"I think, in common fairness, it is my turn for an innings again,--don't
you?"

She laughed, and lifted her shoulders, evading direct reply.

"Does that mean that you care nothing, one way or other?" There was
smothered passion in his tone.

"And if it does? What then?"

"Gad! How coolly you stab a poor devil, whose worst sin is that he is
in----" But before the word was out, she checked him sharply.

"Major Garth!--How _dare_ you?"

Her white-hot anger seared both his vanity and his heart. But he had
courage of a sort: and he stood his ground.

"A man in my case will dare anything. Besides, you have insight enough
to have known it these many weeks; and why should the plain statement
anger you, when evidently the plain fact does not?--Tell me that."

The question smote her to silence. For she could not tell him: neither
could she answer hotly and break with him for good. Throughout the
coming week, at least, their intimacy must remain intact; and beyond it
her mind refused to look. She saw herself caught in a tangle of her own
making: a hot wave of vexation at her helplessness, at her cruelly false
position, fired her face from chin to brow.

But Garth, noting the phenomenon, interpreted it otherwise.

"You find my riddle unanswerable?" he questioned almost tenderly: and was
met by a lightning-flash of denial.

"No. By no means! The answer is simple enough. Unhappily you cannot
wipe out--the fact. But you can avoid expressing it: and you
must,--unless you are prepared to lose everything."

"By Jove, no!--I keep what I have gained,--at any price. And at least
your proffer of friendship gives me better right to monopolise you than
that chap Desmond can lay claim to. But he appears to be privileged."

"He is privileged."

"How so?"

"Simply by being the right sort of man."

Garth scrutinised her keenly.

"And a V.C. into the bargain--eh? I don't min