The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-28


sRaschid must be there. and Harry
Loder.s But when they arrived at
the house Harry Loder was not
there. but only Raschid Ali Khan
still dressed IN the ill-fitting uni.
form. surrounded by the others. by
Edwina and Aunt Phoebe. Mrs.
Simon and Mrs. Hoggett-Egburry
and the Bannerjees and a half
dozen low-caste Hindus who had
turned up from somewhere. He
looked gaunt and weary and he
was telling them about the death
OF Harry Loder.
Harry had succeeded in blowing
up the barrier with dynamite, but
somehow. Rasohid did not know
how, something had gone wrong
and in the darkness. in the very
midst Of the operations. his es-
cape from the barrier had been
cut off. and as the explosion &C.
CURED and the mass of wreckage
and bodies heayed and broke,
Harry Loder was swept away with
II, down the narrow canyon.
For a moment, there was sill
ence and then Raschid, the war;
rior. the Muslin. the enemy of the
British empire said. quite simply,
1T was an Englishman doing his
duty"
Watching him. listening, Fern
understood suddenly the look on
i the face of Harry Loder when
+ he had stood here in the same
room the day before without see
ing her at all. as if she had ceased
to exist Il was like the look in
the face of Miss Dirks as she sat
on the veranda of Ransome's
house. drinking tea and talking
nostalgieally of Nolham, the look
OF one who was already dead.
Then Mrs. Hoggett Egburry.
dressed once more in her dried but
still mud-stained peignoir. began
to cry and Mrs. Simon led her
from the room. They had both
known Harry Loder well. And
now in death he was a hero.
When they had gone. Raschid
said. I must get back now to the
other side of the river" And TO
Ransome he said, You'd better
come with me. I imagine her
highness will want to see you
But Aunt Phoebe would not let
him go until he had had coffee
and toast and the last two eggs
in the house. It's no good" she
said, asking man to do work
on an empty stomach"
Raschid's account of Harry
Loder's death had saved Fern and
himself the ordeal and embarrass-
ment of coming into the room to
meet at the same time the COM
bined gaze of Aunt Phoebe's
strange house party. The others
had all been listening to Raschid,
and scarcely noticed them.
Exhaustion, the exh aust on
which follows shock and the long
strain of work and responsibility,
seemed to have seized them all.
Mr.. and Mrs. Bannerjee drifted
away silently, with Miss Murga.
troyd, subdued and weary, follow.
ing them, and there were left in
the kitchen only big Raschid and
Edwina, Fern, and Aunt Phoebe
I bending over the stove. Even her
spare tireless figure seemed to
droop a little. They sat in silence
until Edwina said. But what hap
pened to you? You haven't told
us that
For second Ransome did not
h. III
answer her until he was sure how
she meant the question, whether
she had asked simply out of Curl
osity, whether there was still in
the question something of the old
righteousness, or whether she had
asked only to embarrass himself
and Fern. A sharp glance and he
saw that the blue eyes were in
nocent. She knew, but she had
not asked in order TO embarrass
them.
Nothing much. On the way
back, it got dark and I got N.Y.
self lost. I spent most of the
night in the boat tied up to BAN
yam tree
80 " aAAAAtd [thliA lptDt DdIhs
She did not even turn from the
stove. and then. with a little
shock of establishment. he thought
of his grandmother. In both old
women there was something,
some force and grandeur, it seem
ed to him, which one no longer
found in the world. something
which was of the world real, not
modern" and transient like the
morality of such people as himself
and Edwina. but something eter-
nal The sight of Aunt Phoebe
bending over the stove. so ancient
and wise and dependable, made
him feel suddenly young.
He and Raschid and Fern be-
gan to eat. and to his astonish-
ment he saw Edwina rise from
the stiff wooden chair and help
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