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The Secret Service Man
by
Later, Carlyon had sought him out, had shaken hands with him, called him an impetuous young ass, and had enjoined him to stick to himself during the expedition in which Derrick was thus recklessly determined to take part. They had, in fact, been entirely reconciled, avoiding by mutual consent the delicate ground of their dispute. Carlyon was a man of considerable reputation on the Frontier, and Derrick Rose was secretly proud of the friendship that existed between them.
Now, however, the friendship had split to its very foundation. Carlyon had failed him when life itself had been in the balance.
Impetuous as he was, Derrick was not one to forgive quickly so gross an injury as this. He did not think, moreover, that Averil herself would continue to offer homage before so obvious a piece of clay as her idol had proved himself to be. Derrick was beginning to apply to Carlyon the most odious of all epithets–that of coward.
He had set his heart upon a reconciliation with Averil, and earnestly he hoped she would see the matter with his eyes.
III
DERRICK’S PARADISE
“So it was the Secret Service man who saved your life,” said Averil, with flushed cheeks. “Really, Dick, how splendid of him!”
“Finest chap I ever saw!” declared Derrick. “He looked about eight feet high in native dress. I shall have to find that man some day, and tell him what I think of him.”
“Yes, indeed!” agreed Averil. “I expect, you know, it was really Colonel Carlyon who sent him.”
“Being too great a–strategist to advance himself,” said Derrick.
“But he didn’t know you were at the head of the Goorkhas,” Averil reminded him.
“Perhaps not,” said Derrick. “But he knew I was there. And, putting me out of the question altogether, what can you think of an officer who will coolly leave a party of his men to be slaughtered like sheep in a butcher’s yard because the poor beggars happen to have got into a tight place?”
Derrick spoke with strong indignation, and Averil was silent awhile. Presently, however, she spoke again, slowly.
“I can’t help thinking, Dick,” she said, “that there is an explanation somewhere. We ought not–it would not be fair–to say Colonel Carlyon acted unworthily before he has had a chance of justifying himself.”
There was justice in this remark. Derrick, who was lying at the girl’s feet on the hearthrug in the Rectory drawing-room, reached up a bony hand and took possession of one of hers. For Averil had received him with a warmer welcome than he had deemed possible in his most sanguine moments, and he was very happy in consequence.
“All right,” he said equably. “We’ll shunt Carlyon for a bit, and talk about ourselves. Shall we?”
Averil drew the bony hand on to her lap and looked at it critically.
“Poor old boy!” she said. “It is thin.”
Derrick drew himself up to a sitting position. There was an air of mastery about him as he raised a determined face to hers.
“Averil,” he said suddenly, “you aren’t going to send me to the right-about again, are you?”
“Oh, don’t let us squabble on your first night!'” said Averil hastily.
“Squabble!” the boy exclaimed, springing to his feet vigorously. “Do you call–that–squabbling?”
Averil stood up, too, tall and straight, and slightly defiant.
“I don’t want you to go away, Dick,” she said, “if you can stay and behave nicely. I thought it was horribly selfish of you to go off as you did last winter. I think so still. If you had got killed, I should have been very–very–“
“What?” demanded Derrick impatiently. “Sorry? Angry–what?”
“Angry,” said Averil, with great decision. “I should never have forgiven you. I am not sure that I shall, as it is.”
Derrick uttered a sudden passionate laugh. Then abruptly his mood changed. He held out his hands to her.
“Averil!” he said. “Averil! Can’t you see how I want you–how I love you? Why do you treat me like this? I’ve thought about you, dreamt about you, day after day, night after night, ever since I went away. You thought it beastly selfish of me to go. But it hasn’t been such fun, after all. All the weeks I was in hospital I felt sick for the sight of you. It was worse than starvation. Can’t you see what it is to me? Can’t you see that I–I worship you?”