Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/272

  be at ease, yet all of the time it seemed to me that she was under a certain tension; alert, expectant and a little restive—as one listens for a summons—or fears that perhaps it may have passed unobserved. Dr. Fouchère was also distrait, and several times I noticed that he turned his head sharply to one side, as if striving to catch some hidden sound.

"It was such a night as this—dark, still, partly clouded, but with stars and a late moon. At times there would be a flare of lightning in the south, but the five o'clock shower had come and gone and there would be no more rain. I was narrating an experience in Java, and they appeared to be interested; then, as I talked on, there came pulsing up from the valley beneath the slow, measured beat of a bamboula.

"I heard a rustle from the chaise-longue occupied by Madame; the dull glow at the end of Dr. Fouchère's cigar blazed suddenly bright, then died away again. "I went on with my story, but all of the [ 256 ]