"Yes--even if he wasn't responsible, he had become just that--a beast.
She had saved his life, too--night I ran down to the beach after
eating a poison fish. Barricade hadn't been finished. He was down with
the fever. They were attacked--jackals, hyenas. She got him safe
inside the tree, with the yelling curs jumping at her."

"My word! she did that?--she? Of all the young ladies I've ever known,
she was the very last I should have expected--"

"What! you've met her before?" demanded Blake.

"Then she hasn't told you?" replied his friend. "Lady Bayrose was one
of my old friends, y'know. Met 'em aboard ship--sailed on the same
steamer, after my run home."

"You did?" muttered Blake, in blank astonishment. "You know her?"

"You must have heard me sing out to her from the boat. Yes, I--er--had
the voyage with her through the Mediterranean and down the Red Sea.
But Lady Bayrose got tiffed at me, and at Aden shifted to a Cape boat.
I had to go on to India alone."

"India?" queried Blake.

"Trailing Hawkins. He first went to India. But he doubled back and
'round to Cape Colony."

"So that's why you didn't get here sooner," said Blake.

"Yes. Didn't notice that the _Impala_ was posted. Didn't know either