The great control which he had
exercised till now he was no longer able to sustain. He did not answer,
nor did he utter any sound, but he sat shivering from head to foot.
"How did it happen?" Calder asked again, and in a whisper.
Durrance put another question:--
"How did you find out?"
"You stood in the mess-room doorway listening to discover whose voice
spoke from where. When I raised my head and saw you, though your eyes
rested on my face there was no recognition in them. I suspected then.
When you came down the steps into the verandah I became almost certain.
When you would not help yourself to food, when you reached out your arm
over your shoulder so that Moussa had to put the brandy-and-soda safely
into your palm, I was sure."
"I was a fool to try and hide it," said Durrance. "Of course I knew all
the time that I couldn't for more than a few hours. But even those few
hours somehow seemed a gain."
"How did it happen?"
"There was a high wind," Durrance explained. "It took my helmet off. It
was eight o'clock in the morning. I did not mean to move my camp that
day, and I was standing outside my tent in my shirt-sleeves. So you see
that I had not even the collar of a coat to protect the nape of my neck.
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