Three days later, Weldon ran lightly up the stone steps and rang at the Dents' door.
"Is Miss Dent in?" he asked the maid."I know it isn't her day; but tell her I am leaving town almost immediately, and I wish to say good by."Notwithstanding his message, Ethel was long about appearing, and her face and manner, when she halted on the threshold, were a bit unapproachable.Then, as her eyes lighted on the brown uniform and the wide slouch hat, her whole expression changed, and she came forward with an eagerness which she was at no pains to conceal.
"Mr.Weldon."
He bowed in mock humility.
"Trooper Weldon, if you please."
"I am delighted.Is it your old troop?"
He shook his head.
"No.I know the Transvaal and all its resources by heart.I have chosen the Orange Free State.It is a new country; and, besides, all the best of the fighting is going to be there, on the heels of De Wet.""Are you a prophet?" she asked, while she dropped into a chair and motioned to him to be seated.
"No; but I suspect that Captain Frazer is," he answered, as he obeyed her.
She raised her brows questioningly.
"Does he go, too?"
"Not now.His staff work holds him here among the fleshpots," he replied." Later, he may be able to come up to us.""Us?"
"The South African Light Horse."
"Why did you choose them?"
"Because they are to operate in the Orange River country, and because they would have me.""Is that a matter to consider?"
Weldon laughed while, placing his hat on the floor, he settled himself more comfortably in his chair.His face was unusually animated, that day, and his trim new uniform and his carefully-wound putties added inches to his height and showed his lithe, lean figure at its very best.
"I considered it," he answered then."It is a trick of mine, as soon as I decide I want a thing, to be in living terror of losing it.
However, the ordeal was short and not too severe.Captain Frazer introduced me to a little lieutenant who looked me over, asked me if I could ride, if I could shoot a rifle and if I had had any experience.I fancy the matter was settled beforehand.Then I went out and treated The Nig and Piggie to some new shoes, and myself to a new uniform, and the deed was done.""Are you glad, or sorry?" she asked slowly.
"That there was no more red tape?"
"That you decided as you did?"
He stared at her thoughtfully for a minute.Then he answered,--"But I imagine it rather decided itself.I spoke of it to you once before, I remember, when we were up in hospital, how there never seemed to be much choice open to me.I fancy I am deciding things; Imull over them till I am disgusted with the whole matter.Then, after I have made up my mind what I am going to do, I suddenly realize that there was never any question about it from the start.Ihave simply said 'yes' to an irresistible force.""Perhaps," she assented slowly."I am not so sure." Then she turned to the tangible fact."But when do you go?""To-morrow morning."
"I am sorry it must be so soon," she said quietly."Still, I am glad you are going.You never would have been satisfied to sail for home now.""No," he answered."I should not."
Then the talk halted again.
"Where is Mr.Carew?" she asked abruptly at length, less from interest in Carew than from a desire to escape so insistent a pause.
"At the Mount Nelson." "Here in Cape Town?""Yes.He came down with me.We volunteered together, you know, and his time was ended, too.""Does he go home?"
"No; not Harry Carew.We had decided to keep together in our plans;in fact, it was one of the conditions of our coming out.But, from the start, he has hated the idea of going back home as long as there was an armed Boer left in the field.""And he goes with you?"
"Yes, to Springfontein.We have our headquarters there for the present.For Carew's sake, I hope it will be more riding and scouting than actual fighting.The man is made of some material that draws all the bullets in sight."Ethel smiled.
"Don't let him stop near you, then," she advised.
"Why not? He is as good as a shield.It is hard on him, though.He was hit four or five times before Vlaakfontein, and has had one scratch since.""What is the trouble? Is he foolhardy?"
"Foolhardy in war, Miss Dent?"
"Yes, just that.There is no sense in taking needless risks.""But it is mighty hard to draw the line between avoiding needless risks and funking necessary ones," he answered."But Carew isn't reckless.He is plucky, but very level-headed, and he means to take care of himself, when he can.One can't always, you know.And then he is wonderfully unlucky.""You believe in luck, then?"
"Yes, or Fate.What else makes a man move out of the way, just in time for the bullet to graze his cheek? He doesn't see the bullet coming; neither does the man who stops it.Both of them are busy about something else.For the man who escapes it, it is Providence;for the man who gets killed, it is Fate."She tried to rouse him from his sudden gravity.
"And for both, it is mere chance."
"If you call it that.Miss Dent--" He hesitated.
"Yes," she assented gravely.
"It was only a chance, but a strange one," he went on, with his eyes fixed on the topmost ridge of his brown puttie."We were climbing the face of a kopje, one day.It was very steep, and we crawled up a narrow trail in single file.Two days before, our guns had been shelling the whole kopje, and they must have cracked it up badly.
All at once, the man above me loosened a great lump of rock.I was exactly underneath it.It gave a little bound outward, went completely over me and struck full on the head of the next man in line."The girl sat, bending forward in her chair, her strong, quiet hands clasped loosely in her lap.
"And he?" she asked quite low.
"He dropped to the foot of the kopje, dead.In his fall, he dragged down the next man after him, and his leg was crushed.""And you were saved!" she said a bit breathlessly.
"Doesn't it make you feel a vague responsibility, as if you must live up to something that you couldn't quite understand?"Without looking up, he bowed in assent.
