Anna Lombard, page 159 by Victoria Cross
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to the bed and looked keenly at him. He was still in the first stage of cholera, and could bo saved, I thought.
"Gaida Khan," I said, gently, "I am going to cure you for your wife's sake. You know Englishmen do not lie. Trust me."
A semblance of that former smile, which had been the crowning beauty of that marvelous face, passed over it.
"My trust is with thee," he murmured, and clused his eyes.
I opened a pocket medicine-case and took out a preparation of opium and gave him a few drops. He took them calmly and lay motionless. I turned to Anna,
"Give your servants orders to carry him over to my house," I said. "I can treat him better there, and air and space are essential."
Anna clasped her hands against her breast in dismay, and looked at mo with streaming eyes.
"Do you want to take him away from me now?"
"You cai come there stay there, if you wish," I said, hurriedly; "but he must be moved. Give your orders at once. Seconds now mean life or death."
Anna grew paler, if that were possible; but she did not hesitate longer. She raised the swinging mat and slipped out into the burnished light of the compound. I stood by the bed ready to give more opium, if there should be the slightest sign of an approaching cramp. But he lay still, and there was no sound within or without save the gay call of a maina, now and then, swinging on a bough outside.
In a few seconds Anna reappeared wiLh four servants, two of whom went to the head of the charpoy and two to the feet, and they lifted it with ease. Anna and I tora down the mats from the front of the hut, and left a free and open way for the charpoy and its bearers to pass out. The compound was silent and deserted in the blazing solitude of noon, and we threaded our way across it between the pomegranate-trees and out to the side-gate that opened on to the road leading to my house. This, too, was quiet and empty, lying arid and parched under the pitiless glare.
Anna drew one of the thin, cotton cloth