In redeeming his honour in the eyes of one of the three he has done enough, he has redeemed it in the eyes of all." But he had gone south to join Colonel Trench in Omdurman.

Of that squalid and shadowless town, of its hideous barbarities, of the horrors of its prison-house, Ethne knew nothing at all.

But Captain Willoughby had hinted enough to fill her imagination with terrors.

He had offered to explain to her what captivity in Omdurman implied, and she wrung her hands, as she remembered that she had refused to listen.

What cruelties might not be practised?
Even now, at that very hour perhaps, on this night of summer--but she dared not let her thoughts wander that way....
The lapping of the tide against the banks was like the music of a river.
It brought to Ethne's mind one particular river which had sung and babbled in her ears when five years ago she had watched out another summer night till dawn.