Her escort, wretched and
half-starved, never forgot the deference due to their charge, but strode
steadily on with the doggedness of martyrs. At times she was impelled to
disclose her true identity, but discretion told her that deception was
her best safeguard.
Late in the afternoon of the second day the front axle of the coach
snapped in two, and a tedious delay of two hours ensued. Baldos was
strangely silent and subdued. It was not until the misfortune came that
Beverly observed the flushed condition of his face. Involuntarily and
with the compassion of a true woman she touched his hand and brow. They
were burning-hot. The wounded man was in a high fever. He laughed at her
fears and scoffed at the prospect of blood-poisoning and the hundred
other possibilities that suggested themselves to her anxious brain.
"We are close to Ganlook," he said, with the setting of the sun. "Soon
you may be relieved of your tiresome, cheerless company, your highness."
"You are going to a physician," she said, resolutely, alive and active
once more, now that the worst part of the journey was coming to an
end. "Tell that man to drive in a gallop all the rest of the way!"
CHAPTER VIII
THROUGH THE GANLOOK GATES
By this time they were passing the queer little huts that marked the
outskirts of a habitable community. These were the homes of shepherds,
hunters and others whose vocations related especially to the
mountains.
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