There was no use in explaining now. She would have occasion enough to do it sometime, she feared; and then it would be useless. To-night she could say nothing. All these days she had dreaded what might come, for it did not seem to her that Captain Archdale took any care at all. Still, in the camp, out of general action, and surrounded by others, there had been comparative safety.
Now the hour, the place, and the purpose had met. Through the darkness Stephen Archdale was going to his doom.
The General sent Elizabeth away very kindly. She sent the weary Nancy to bed and went back to the hospital. But anxiety mastered her so that she could not keep her hands from trembling or her voice from faltering when there was most need for steadiness.
"You are exhausted, Mistress Royal, you ought not to be here," said one of the surgeons sternly. "Go and rest."
"Oh, please let me stay," she pleaded with a humility so new that he looked at her with curiosity.
"Hush!" said his assistant making an excuse to draw him aside. "Don't you know she's been watching the men set out for the Fort?"
Elizabeth found words of comfort for a soldier who was mourning because his wife would have no one to look after her, if he died. "I will help her," she said. And then, by the light of the flaring candle, she wrote down the woman's address. She repeated verses of Scripture for some who asked her for them, and found a little steadiness of voice in doing it. But through everything she saw Archdale's vigorous form and heard Edmonson's passionate voice and his words. With such a marksman, and at such range, how could a shot stray!
But she dreaded still more the time when the expedition should return. To-night she bitterly regretted that the General had not been told her errand, and saw that when Mr. Royal urged it, it had been the wish to save her that had made Stephen Archdale ask him not to do it.
Three hours after the start she heard that the expedition had failed. All that was left was returning, the wounded would soon be brought in. Her little strength deserted her for the moment She sank down helpless in the shadow. Then she rose and went forward.
As the boat lay rocking on the waves waiting for the others, Archdale took his bearings. Leaning towards the stern, he said to one of his men:--