Mr. Keeping hurried us to the wagon and we were soon galloping across the desert.

In due course we arrived at Suez, where we spent a day waiting for the rest of the wagons to arrive. To our amazement, Monsieur Lasseur did not come. Alice and I wondered a great deal about him. It was strange. Who would have thought that such a seasoned traveller would have eaten something that did not agree with him. It would have been understandable if it had happened to one of us.

The P. & O. Steamer was waiting for us. We went on board and settled into our small cabin for two, immensely relieved that we had survived the hazardous journey across the desert.

In due course we sailed. Monsieur Lasseur still had not arrived.

We discussed him a great deal during the first days at sea.

"He was very attentive to us," I said to Alice.

"I always felt he had a motive," she said.

"Just friendliness. He liked helping two defenceless females who ought not to have been travelling on their own."

"I could never quite understand him, and his disappearance was most mysterious."

"I wonder how he felt about not being able to get to Suez?"

"He'll only be a few days late, and as he hadn't a ship to catch I don't suppose it mattered all that much."

"It seemed so strange. We were with him most of the time and then ... he disappeared."

"Tom Keeping seemed to think it was a very ordinary occurrence. The food doesn't always agree with us. I don't suppose standards of hygiene are what they should be. But I thought he would be the sort who would be fully aware of all that and act accordingly."

"I think Tom Keeping did not care very much for him."

"Perhaps the feeling might have been mutual. However, Monsieur Lasseur disappeared, and it is doubtful that we shall ever hear of him again."

We saw Tom Keeping every day. I had a feeling that he was watchful of us and had instituted himself as our protector in place of Monsieur Lasseur.

The seas were calmer and the voyage enjoyable; one day seemed to slip by after another and there was a similarity among them. Many of the passengers who had been on the Oriental Queen were still with us, and it seemed just a change of scene, but we had picked up a few passengers at Suez and there were friendly exchanges between us as we sailed down the Red Sea to Aden.

The heat grew great and I remember lazy days when we sat on deck and, as Alice said, recovered from the gruelling time we had endured in the desert.

Tom Keeping often joined us. I noticed that Alice was getting very friendly with him. He was most pleasant to us both, but I detected that while he regarded me more as an object in need of protection he had a great admiration for Alice.

He was an experienced traveller. He told us that he had done the journey from India to England and back many times.

"Most of the people who are going out are in the Army or in the Company; and I think the greater number are in the Company."

"And you," I asked, "are in the Company?"

"Yes, Miss Delany. I am a Company man and I shall be making my way to Delhi as soon as we land."

"We shall be staying in Bombay for a while," Alice told him. "But I believe that our employer may travel round a bit, so we might well find ourselves in Delhi."

"It would please me very much if you did," he said.

He knew, of course, to whom we were going. Fabian, it appeared, was well known to him.

"You must know India well," said Alice.

"My dear Miss Philwright, I don't know anyone who is not a native of the country who knows India well. I often wonder what goes on in the minds of the natives. I don't think anyone can be sure ... any European, that is."

He talked vividly. He made us want to see the lush, green country, the big houses with their lawns dominated by the spreading banyan trees, the stately pipal and feathery tamarind, but most of all to see the people ... the mixed races, the several castes, the customs—which were so different from our own.

"I have a feeling that many of them resent our presence," he told us, "although the more sensible of them know that we bring trade and a better style of living. But intruders are never popular."

"How deeply do they resent foreigners?"

"That is something we cannot be sure of. We are dealing with an inscrutable race. Many of them consider themselves to be more civilized than we are and they resent the intrusion of our foreign ways."

"And yet they endure you."

Tom Keeping smiled at me wryly. "I sometimes wonder for how long."

"You mean they might turn you out?"

"They couldn't do that, but they might try."

"That would be dreadful."

"You express it mildly, Miss Delany. But what a topic! India is safe in the hands of the Company."

I shall never forget our time in Aden. It was brief. We were only stopping for a few hours, but Tom Keeping said he would take us for a short drive.

How menacing it seemed as we sailed towards it. The black cliffs rising starkly out of the sea seemed to threaten us.

We were on deck, Alice and I, with Tom Keeping beside us.

"It looks as though we are sailing into the gates of hell," Alice remarked.

"You feel that, do you? Do you know what they say of this place? That Cain—who slew Abel—is buried here, and that since such a notorious murderer was lain here, the atmosphere of the place has changed. It has become evil."

"I could well believe that," I said. "But I imagine it was rather gloomy before."

"No one has left word to tell us so," replied Tom Keeping. "And I think the story got about because it has such a forbidding aspect."

"Oh, I certainly believe legends attach themselves to things and places because they seem to fit," said Alice.

The few hours we spent in Aden were very pleasant. We were under the protection of Tom Keeping and I was glad of it. Alice seemed to be changing. She looked younger. I thought: Can it be that she is falling in love with Tom Keeping?

They talked a great deal together and sometimes I felt like an intruder. It was strange. Alice was the last person, I would have thought, who would have allowed herself to be taken by romantic storm. Perhaps I exaggerated. Just because two people obviously liked each other, that was no reason to conclude that they were contemplating marriage. Alice was far too sensible to take a shipboard friendship seriously, and I was sure Tom Keeping was, too. No. It was just that their personalities were congenial. They struck me as two of the most sensible people I had ever known; quite different from Lavinia and her bogus Comte.

Tom Keeping told us that he would make his way by land from Bombay to Delhi. Travelling was not easy in India. There was no railroad and therefore journeys were tedious and only taken from necessity. Doubtless he would travel by dak-ghari, a sort of carriage drawn by horses; there would be many stops en route, often in places offering inadequate comfort.

"I believe it was you who warned us that travelling was often uncomfortable," I said.

"It is something I have learned through experience."

The sea voyage was coming to an end. There were long, warm, calm days as we crossed the Arabian Sea, and we forgot our cramped cabin, the stormy seas and the ride through the desert when we had rather mysteriously lost Monsieur Lasseur.

I noticed that Alice was growing a little sad as we were nearing our destination and I believed it was at the prospect of saying goodbye to Tom Keeping. He did not seem to be touched by the same melancholy, although I did feel he had enjoyed his friendship with us and particularly with Alice.

He had always given me the impression that he had taken on the role of protector, and I told Alice that I often thought of him as Tom Keeper rather than Tom Keeping. She laughed and said she felt the same.

And then at last we were nearing the end of our long journey.

I was excited by the prospect of seeing Lavinia again ... and perhaps at some time Fabian. I wondered how I should feel about Dougal. Whichever way I looked at it, I knew it would be far from dull.

"You will be met, I am sure," said Tom Keeping. "So ... the time has come for us to say our farewells."

"How long will you stay in Bombay?" I asked.

"Only for a day or so. I have to make arrangements to leave for Delhi immediately."

Alice was silent.

There came the last evening. In the morning we would disembark.

As we lay in our bunks that night, I asked Alice how she felt about arriving at our destination.

"Well," she said rather wistfully, "it's really what we set out to do, isn't it?"

"Yes. But the journey was an adventure in itself!"

"Well, it is over now. And here we are. Now we have to begin our duties."

"And remember we are no longer independent."

"Exactly. But work will be good for us."

"I wonder if we shall see Tom Keeping again."

Alice said nothing for a few moments and then, "Delhi is a long way from Bombay. You heard what he said about the difficulties of journeys."

"It is so strange. When you travel with people you get to know them so well ... and then they are gone."

"I think," said Alice soberly, "that is something you have to accept from the start. Now we should try to sleep. We have a long day ahead of us."

I knew she was afraid of betraying her feelings. Poor Alice. I thought she had begun to care for Tom Keeping. And he might have done for her if they could have remained together. But now he seemed concerned with his business. I thought of Byron's lines: