But in no panic; he had never been so collected. He was
followed by the second soldier. He had foreseen that he would be
followed. If he was to escape, it was indeed necessary that he should
be. He turned a corner, crouched behind a wall, and as the Arab came
running by he leaped out upon his shoulders. And again as he leaped he
struck."
Captain Willoughby stopped at this point of his story and turned towards
Ethne. He had something to say which perplexed and at the same time
impressed him, and he spoke with a desire for an explanation.
"The strangest feature of those few fierce, short minutes," he said,
"was that Feversham felt no fear. I don't understand that, do you? From
the first moment when the lantern shone upon him from behind, to the
last when he turned his feet eastward, and ran through the ruined alleys
and broken walls toward the desert and the Wells of Obak, he felt no
fear."
This was the most mysterious part of Harry Feversham's story to Captain
Willoughby. Here was a man who so shrank from the possibilities of
battle, that he must actually send in his papers rather than confront
them; yet when he stood in dire and immediate peril he felt no fear.
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