ness: proceedings that at once mystified and
flattered him, as Honor herself was delightedly aware.

For a full hour the exodus of man and beast went noisily forward. But
Colonel Mayhew's departure was delayed by his desire to see the Chumba
contingent well under weigh before leaving: and by the time he
announced his readiness to start, the last remaining units of the Great
Camp were out of sight, trotting briskly along the shadowed road that
winds up through the forest to Bukrota Mall.

"If we push along briskly we may get in with dry skins yet," he said,
scanning the sky, where a vanguard of tattered cloud trailed aimlessly
across the blue.

"And I was actually hoping we might get caught!" Quita confessed on a
mock note of apology. "It would make such a thrilling _finale_: and I
delight in your Indian storms."

Colonel Mayhew laughed and shook his head.

"When you have seen and heard as many of them as I have, Miss Maurice,
you will simply find them 'demnition damp and disagreeable,' like
Mantalini's dead body! And even at the risk of disappointing you, I
intend to make a bolt for it.--Come on, my contingent!"

Lenox was at his wife's right hand, as he had promised: and Garth had
so far succumbed as to lift Mrs Desmond into her saddle.

"You are a practised hand at it!" she said, smiling down upon his
obvious annoyance at the fate in store for him. "Why shouldn't you and
I head the contingent? Some one must go first!"

There was nothing for it but to acquiesce; and to endure, as best he
might, the torment of Quita's clear tones close behind, alternating
with her husband's bass; both voices pitched too low to be articulate,
Desmond followed with Mayhew, while Maurice and Elsie, and the
customary string of coolies, brought up the rear.

For the first few miles splashes of sunlight gleamed and quivered on
the rough pathway, on red-pine stems, and moss-coated rocks. But
before half their journey was accomplished, it became evident that they
were not to escape the opening storm of the great monsoon.

A shuddering wind set the dense pines above and below them swaying and
moaning, a sound of strange and infinite melancholy. The sunlight went
out like a snuffed candle; battalions of clouds, charged with
electricity, rolled silently northward, obliterating all things; and an
ochreous twilight settled down upon the forest. Save for the
whispering of wind-tossed trees, all Nature seemed hushed, expectant,
hol