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Chapter 8: Arrays and Strings
TRUE/FALSE
2. The array index can be any integer less than the array size.
3. The statement int list[25]; declares list to be an array of 26 components, since the array
index starts at 0.
4. Given the declaration int list[20]; the statement list[12] = list[5] + list[7];
updates the content of the twelfth component of the array list.
5. Suppose list is a one dimensional array of size 25, wherein each component is of type int. Further,
suppose that sum is an int variable. The following for loop correctly finds the sum of the elements
of list.
sum = 0;
6. If an array index goes out of bounds, the program always terminates in an error.
7. Arrays can be passed as parameters to a function by value, but it is faster to pass them by reference.
8. When you pass an array as a parameter, the base address of the actual array is passed to the formal
parameter.
9. The one place where C++ allows aggregate operations on arrays is the input and output of C-strings.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following statements declares alpha to be an array of 25 components of the type int?
a. int alpha[25]; c. int alpha[2][5];
b. int array alpha[25]; d. int array alpha[25][25];
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 507-508
2. Assume you have the following declaration char nameList[100];. Which of the following
ranges is valid for the index of the array nameList?
a. 0 through 99 c. 1 through 100
b. 0 through 100 d. 1 through 101
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 509
3. Assume you have the following declaration int beta[50];. Which of the following is a valid
element of beta?
a. beta['2'] c. beta[0]
b. beta['50'] d. beta[50]
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 509
4. Assume you have the following declaration double salesData[1000];. Which of the following
ranges is valid for the index of the array salesData?
a. 0 through 999 c. 1 through 1001
b. 0 through 1000 d. 1 through 1000
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 509
5. Suppose that sales is an array of 50 components of type double. Which of the following correctly
initializes the array sales?
a. for (int 1 = 1; j <= 49; j++)
sales[j] = 0;
b. for (int j = 1; j <= 50; j++)
sales[j] = 0;
c. for (int j = 0; j <= 49; j++)
sales[j] = 0.0;
d. for (int j = 0; j <= 50; j++)
sales[j] = 0.0;
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 512
6. Suppose that list is an array of 10 components of type int. Which of the following codes correctly
outputs all the elements of list?
a. 0 1 2 3 4 c. 0 5 10 15 20
b. 0 5 10 15 d. 5 10 15 20
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 512
int alpha[5];
int j;
a. 1 c. 5
b. 4 d. 6
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 512
a. 2 4 6 8 10 c. 8 6 4 2 0
b. 4 3 2 1 0 d. 10 8 6 4 2
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 512
a. 0 5 10 15 20 c. 5 10 15 20 20
b. 5 10 15 20 0 d. Code results in index out-of-bounds
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 515-516
11. Suppose that gamma is an array of 50 components of type int and j is an int variable. Which of the
following for loops sets the index of gamma out of bounds?
a. for (j = 0; j <= 49; j++)
cout << gamma[j] << " ";
b. for (j = 1; j < 50; j++)
cout << gamma[j] << " ";
c. for (j = 0; j <= 50; j++)
cout << gamma[j] << " ";
d. for (j = 0; j <= 48; j++)
cout << gamma[j] << " ";
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 515-516
12. Consider the following declaration: int alpha[5] = {3, 5, 7, 9, 11};. Which of the
following is equivalent to this statement?
a. int alpha[] = {3, 5, 7, 9, 11};
b. int alpha[] = {3 5 7 9 11};
c. int alpha[5] = [3, 5, 7, 9, 11];
d. int alpha[] = (3, 5, 7, 9, 11);
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 516
14. Which of the following correctly declares name to be a character array and stores "William" in it?
a. char name[6] = "William";
b. char name[7] = "William";
c. char name[8] = "William";
d. char name[8] = 'William';
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 536
15. Consider the following declaration: char str[15];. Which of the following statements stores
"Blue Sky" into str?
a. str = "Blue Sky";
b. str[15] = "Blue Sky";
c. strcpy(str, "Blue Sky");
d. strcpy("Blue Sky");
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 537
16. Consider the following declaration:
char charArray[51];
char discard;
cin.get(charArray, 51);
cin.get(discard);
17. Consider the following statement: double alpha[10][5];. The number of components of
alpha is ____.
a. 15 c. 100
b. 50 d. 150
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 544
18. Consider the statement int list[10][8];. Which of the following about list is true?
a. list has 10 rows and 8 columns.
b. list has 8 rows and 10 columns.
c. list has a total of 18 components.
d. list has a total of 108 components.
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 544
19. Consider the following statement: int alpha[25][10];. Which of the following statements about
alpha is true?
a. Rows of alpha are numbered 0...24 and columns are numbered 0...9.
b. Rows of alpha are numbered 0...24 and columns are numbered 1...10.
c. Rows of alpha are numbered 1...24 and columns are numbered 0...9.
d. Rows of alpha are numbered 1...25 and columns are numbered 1...10.
ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: 544
20. Which of the following correctly declares and initializes alpha to be an array of four rows and three
columns with the component type int?
a. int alpha[4][3] = {{0,1,2} {1,2,3} {2,3,4} {3,4,5}};
b. int alpha[4][3] = {0,1,2; 1,2,3; 2,3,4; 3,4,5};
c. int alpha[4][3] = {0,1,2: 1,2,3: 2,3,4: 3,4,5};
d. int alpha[4][3] = {{0,1,2}, {1,2,3}, {2,3,4}, {3,4,5}};
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 546
21. After the following statements execute, what are the contents of matrix?
int matrix[3][2];
int j, k;
a. 0 0 c. 0 1
1 1 1 2
2 2 2 3
b. 0 1 d. 1 1
2 3 2 2
4 5 3 3
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 548-550
int j;
int sum;
double sale[10][7];
which of the following correctly finds the sum of the elements of the fifth row of sale?
a. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 7; j++)
sum = sum + sale[5][j];
b. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 7; j++)
sum = sum + sale[4][j];
c. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 10; j++)
sum = sum + sale[5][j];
d. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 10; j++)
sum = sum + sale[4][j];
ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: 550
int j;
int sum;
double sale[10][7];
which of the following correctly finds the sum of the elements of the fourth column of sale?
a. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 7; j++)
sum = sum + sale[j][3];
b. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 7; j++)
sum = sum + sale[j][4];
c. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 10; j++)
sum = sum + sale[j][4];
d. sum = 0;
for(j = 0; j < 10; j++)
sum = sum + sale[j][3];
ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: 551
25. A collection of a fixed number of elements (called components) arranged in n dimensions (n>=1) is
called a(n) ____.
a. matrix c. n-dimensional array
b. vector d. parallel array
ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: 557
COMPLETION
1. A data type is called ____________________ if variables of that type can store only one value at a
time.
ANS: simple
2. In a(n) ____________________ data type, each data item is a collection of other data items.
ANS: structured
double sales[10];
int index;
ANS: sales[index]
4. The word ____________________ is used before the array declaration in a function heading to
prevent the function from modifying the array.
ANS: const
5. The ____________________ of an array is the address (that is, the memory location) of the first array
component.
ANS: base address
6. The ____________________ sort algorithm finds the location of the smallest element in the unsorted
portion of the list and moves it to the top of the unsorted portion of the list.
ANS: selection
7. For a list of length n, the ____________________ sort makes exactly (n(n - 1))/2 key
comparisons and 3(n-1) item assignments.
ANS: selection
ANS:
12
twelve
9. The function ____________________ returns the length of the string s, excluding the null character.
ANS: strlen(s)
ANS: 15
11. The following statements store the value ____________________ into len.
int len;
len = strlen("Sunny California");
ANS: 16
12. The header file string contains the function ____________________,which converts a value of type
string to a null-terminated character array.
ANS: c_str
PTS: 1 REF: 541
13. Two (or more) arrays are called ____________________ if their corresponding components hold
related information.
ANS: parallel
int alpha[10][25];
ANS:
10
ten
15. In the following declaration, the array gamma has ____________________ components.
int gamma[5][6][10];
ANS:
300
three hundred
We ate heartily, the pair of us, that evening. The effect on me was
comforting and humanising. I felt well disposed to my fellow man—
and woman, and inclined to sanguine expectations. Miss Ottley,
however, was, as usual, impenetrable. She belonged of right to the
age of iron. A female anachronism. To cheer her I suggested a game
of chess. She consented, and mated me in fourteen moves. We
played again, and once more she beat me. My outspoken admiration
of her skill—I rather fancy my own play at chess—left her perfectly
imperturbable. In the third game she predicted my defeat at the
eleventh move on making her own fourth. I did my best, but her
prophecy was fulfilled. "Enough!" said I, and retiring to the door
way, I lighted a cigarette.
"Hassan Ali, our dragoman, should be here to-morrow," she
presently remarked, "with troops."
"They will never catch our rascal Arabs," I replied. "With five clear
days' start those beggars might be anywhere."
"Just so," said she, "but they will be of some use none the less—if
only to drag that sarcophagus out of the temple."
"Eh!" I exclaimed—and looked at her sharply. "What is the matter
with the thing—here?"
She shrugged her shoulders, then of a sudden smiled. "Do you wish
to be amused?"
"Of all things."
"Then prepare to laugh at me. While you slept this afternoon——"
She paused.
"Yes," I said.
"My father awoke."
"Oh!"
"And conversed."
"Good," I murmured. "He was sensible."
"I do not know. He seemed so. But he did not speak to me."
"You said that he conversed."
"Ay—but with a shadow."
Miss Ottley compressed her lips and looked at me defiantly.
"A shadow," she repeated. "I saw it distinctly. It moved across the
room and stood beside the cot. It was the shadow of a man. But you
are not laughing."
"Not yet," said I. "Had this shadow a voice?"
"No."
"What did your father say to it?"
"He implored it to be patient."
"And the shadow?"
"Vanished."
"And you?"
"I told myself I dreamed. I tried not to die of terror, and succeeded."
"Why did you not wake me?"
"I wished to, but the shadow intervened."
"It reappeared?"
"For a second that reduced me to a state of trembling imbecility."
"That infernal perfume has simply shattered your nerves," I
commented cheerfully. "You'll be better after a good rest. Overstrain
and anxiety of course are to a degree responsible. Indeed, they
might be held accountable for the hallucination alone. But I blame
the perfume to a great extent, because it similarly affected me."
"What!" she cried, "you saw a shadow, too?"
I laughed softly. "My own—no other. But its appearance shocked me
horribly. In my opinion that coffin perfume works powerfully upon
the optic nerve. How are you feeling now?"
"As well as ever in my life."
"No fears?"
"None. But I admit a distrust of that sarcophagus—or rather of the
perfume it contains. Are you sure that you stopped up the chisel
hole securely?"
"Quite. But pardon me, Miss Ottley, you are looking weary. Take my
advice and retire now."
"Thanks. I shall," she said, and with a cool bow she went into the
inner chamber. An hour later Sir Robert awoke. He was quite
sensible and appeared much better. I fed him and we exchanged a
few cheerful remarks. He declared that he had turned the corner
and expressed a strong desire to be up and about his work again.
He also asked after his daughter, and thanked me warmly for my
services. Soon afterwards he dropped off into a tranquil slumber, and
I spent the remainder of my watch reading a Review. As I was not
very tired I gave Miss Ottley grace, and it was a quarter to one when
I awakened her. She came out looking as fresh as a rose, her cheeks
scarlet from their plunge in cool water and consequent towelling.
She invited me to use her couch, but I declined, and sought my
accustomed corner. I slept like the dead—for (I subsequently
discovered) just about an hour. But then I awoke choking and
gasping for breath. I had an abominable sensation of strong fingers
clutched about my throat. At first all was dark before me. But
struggling afoot, the shadows receded from my eyes, and I saw the
lamp—a second afterwards, Miss Ottley. She stood with her back
against the further wall of the chamber, her hands outstretched as if
to repel an impetuous opponent; and her face was cast in an
expression of unutterable terror.
"Miss Ottley!" I cried.
She uttered a strangled scream, then staggered towards me. "Oh!
thank God—you were too strong—for him," she gasped. "He tried to
kill you—and I could not move nor cry."
"Who?" I demanded.
"The—the shadow." She caught my arms and gripped them with
hysterical vigour.
I forced her to sit down and hurried to her father. He was sleeping
like a babe. I thought of the asphyxiating sensation I had
experienced and stepped gently to my sleeping corner. Kneeling
down, I struck a match. The flame burned steadily. Not carbonic acid
gas then at all events; but I tried the whole room to make sure, also
the interior of the sarcophagus, but without result. So far baffled, I
stood up and thought. What agency had been at work to disturb us?
I made a tour of the walls and examined the stones of their
construction one by one. It seemed just possible that there might be
a secret entrance to the chamber; and some robber Arab acquainted
with it might be employing it for evil ends. But I was forced to
abandon that idea like the other. And no one had entered through
the pylon, for the dust about the doorway was absolutely
impressionless. What then? I turned to Miss Ottley. She was
watching me with evidently painful expectation, her hands tightly
clasped.
"What made you think the shadow wished to kill me?" I inquired.
"I saw its face."
"Oh! it has a face now, eh?"
"The face of a devil; and long thin hands. It fastened them about
your throat."
"My dear girl."
"Don't be a fool," she retorted stormily; "what aroused you? Did you
hear me call?"
I was confounded. "Very good," I said, "I admit the hands at least,
for the nonce, for truly I was half strangled. But what do you infer?"
"Can human creatures make themselves invisible at will?"
"My good Miss Ottley, no. But they can run away."
"Do you want to see the shadow's face?"
"Yes."
"Then look on the lid of the sarcophagus and see its portrait in a
gentle mood."
"Ptahmes!" I cried.
"Ay, Ptahmes," she said slowly. "We are haunted by his spirit."
I sat down on the edge of the sarcophagus and lit a cigarette.
"I am quite at a present loss to explain my throttling," I observed,
"but that is the only mystery. I reject your shadow with the
contempt that it deserves. What you saw was some wandering Arab
who hopped in here without troubling to tread through the dust in
the doorway and who departed in the same fashion. Pish! There,
too, is the mystery of my throttling solved."
"Perhaps," said she, "indeed I hope so." She was still trembling in
spasms.
"Are you minded for the experiment?" I asked.
"What is it?"
"I wish to drive this foolish fancy from your mind." I took out my
revolver and showed it to her. "Spirits are said to love the dark best.
Let us put out the lamp. It's their element. How, then, can we better
tempt old Ptahmes from his tomb?" I wound up with a laugh. "I can
promise him a warm reception."
Miss Ottley shivered and grew if possible paler than before. But her
pride was equal to the challenge. "Very well," she said.
I drew up a stool near hers, put out the lamp and sat down. When
my cigarette had burned out the darkness was blacker than the
blackest ebony.
"An idea runs in my head that spirits respond most surely to silent
wooers," I murmured. "But I have no experience. Have you?"
"N-no," said Miss Ottley.
The poor girl was shivering with fear and too proud to admit it. I
sought about for a pretext to comfort her and found one presently.
"Don't they join hands at a séance?" I inquired.
"I—I—t-think so," said Miss Ottley.
"Well, then."
Our hands encountered. Hers was pitifully cold. I enclosed it firmly in
my left and held it on my knee. She sighed but ever so softly, trying
to prevent my hearing it. Thereafter we were silent for very long,
listening to the sick man's quiet breathing. No other sound was to be
heard. But soon Miss Ottley's hand grew warm, and the fingers
twined around mine. It felt a nice good little hand. It was very small,
yet firm and silken-smooth, and it possessed a strange electric
quality. It made mine tingle—a distinctly pleasurable sensation. I fell
into a dreamy mood and I think I must have indulged in forty winks,
when all of a sudden Miss Ottley's hand aroused me. Her fingers
were gripping mine with the force of a vice. She was breathing hard.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"There is some—presence in the room," she gasped. "Don't you feel
it?"
And as I live, I did. I struck a match and sprang afoot. Three paces
off a man's face glowered at us in the fitful glimmer of the lucifer. Its
characteristics were so unusual that it is not possible ever to forget
them. The eyes were large, dark and singularly dull. They were set
at an extraordinary distance apart in the skull, six inches, I should
say, at least. But the head, though abnormally broad thereabouts,
tapered to a point in the chin and was cone-shaped above the wide
receding temples. The cheek bones were high and prominent. They
shone in the match light almost white in contrast with the dark skin
of the more shaded portions of the countenance. The nose was long
and aquiline, but the nostrils were broad and compressed at the
base, pointing at negroid ancestry. The mouth, wide and thin-lipped,
was tightly shut. The chin was long, sharp and hairless. The ears
were bat-shaped.
Recovering from my first shock of amazement, I addressed the
intruder in Arabic.
"What are you doing here? What do you want?" I cried.
He did not answer. Enraged, I started forward and hit out from the
shoulder. Striking air. The match went out. I lit another. The man
had vanished. I relighted the lamp and carefully examined the
chamber. But our visitor had not left the slightest sign of his
intrusion.
I shook my head and went over to Miss Ottley. She was leaning
against the wall with her eyes shut, her bosom heaving painfully.
I touched her and she started—suppressing a shriek. Her lips were
trickling blood where she had bitten them. Her face was ghastly and
she seemed about to swoon.
"Pish!" I cried, "there is nothing to be frightened of. A rascally Arab—
knows some secret way of entering this cavern, that is all."
She swayed towards me. I caught her as she fell and bore her to a
stool. But though quite overcome she was not unconscious. Yet her
fortitude was broken down at last and she was helpless. She could
not even sit up unassisted. Placing her on the floor a while, I made
her drink some spirit and then, lifting her upon my knee, I rocked
her in my arms like a child and did my best to soothe her fears.
Heavens, how she cried! My handkerchief was soon as wet as if I
had soused it in a basin of water, and yet she still cried on. I spoke
to her all the time. I told her that I would answer for her safety with
my life, and all sorts of things. And thinking of her as a poor little
child, I called her "dear" continually and "darling"—and I let her
weep herself into an exhausted sleep upon my breast. And when
that happened I did not need anyone to tell me that science was no
longer the mistress of my fate or that I, a comparative pauper, had
committed the unutterable folly of falling in love with the daughter of
a millionaire—whose religion was Pride with a capital P. I held her so
till dawn, staring dumbly at her face, and thus when her eyes
opened they looked straight into mine. She did not move, and half-
unwillingly my arms tightened round her. "The bad dream is over,
little girl," I whispered. "See—the golden sunlight."
"May—May," said Sir Robert's voice.
She started up, her face aflame. I followed her to the bedside. The
patient was awake, and strong and hungry. Also querulous. He
complained of the pain of the wound and ordered me to dress it. He
had seen nothing. But I knew Miss Ottley would not forgive me on
that account. I read it in her eyes. After I had dressed the patient's
wound and we had fed him, she followed me to the door.
"You had no right to let me sleep—like that," she said imperiously.
There was nothing for it but to insult her or to prove myself an
adventurer. I had no mind for the latter course. "Quite right," I
returned, "when you behaved like an idiot I should have treated you
as such and left you to recover from your own silly terror instead of
acting the soft fool and losing my own rest in serving you. I'll do it,
too—next time. What will you have for breakfast?"
She swung on her heel and left me.
Chapter VI
Enter Dr. Belleville
I spent the rest of the day covering up the stele I had unearthed
with sand. There was no use thinking of attempting to transport it to
Cairo under existing circumstances. But I had no mind to be
deprived of the credit attached to its discovery. So I hid it well.
Afterwards I gathered up my portable possessions, including my
tent, and packed them in a load for my ass's back ready for the
morrow. For I had resolved to set out on the morrow for the Hill of
Rakh. Surely, I thought, Ottley will be quite recovered by this. I
wondered why he had not sent for me before—in accordance with
his pledge. Had he forgotten it? The desert was exceptionally still
that evening. There was a new moon, and although it gave but little
light, it seemed to have chained the denizens of the wilderness to
cover. I lay upon the sand gazing up at the stars and listening in vain
for sounds, for hours, then, at length, I fell into a quiet doze. The
howling of a jackal awakened me. It was very far off, therefore I
must have slept lightly. A long sleep, for the moon had disappeared.
The darkness that lay upon the land was like the impenetrable
gloom of a rayless cave. But the heavens were spangled with
twinkling eyes, that beamed upon me very friendly wise. I had lost
all desire to repose, but I had found a craving for a pipe. I took out
my old briar-wood, therefore, charged it to the brim and struck a
match. "My God!" I gasped and scrambled afoot. The tall Arab who
had terrified Miss Ottley in the cave temple at Rakh stood about
three paces off intently regarding me. I struck a second match
before the first had burned out, then felt for my revolver.
"Tell me what it is you want," I cried in Arabic, "and quickly, or I
fire."
He did not speak, but very slowly he moved towards me. I raised the
pistol. "Stop," I said. He did not stop. "Then have it!" I cried, and
pulled the trigger.
He did not flinch from the blistering flash of the discharge. It
seemed to me that it should have seared his face and that the bullet
should have split his skull. I had a momentary glimpse of a ghastly,
brownish-yellow visage and of two dull widely separated eyes
peering into mine. Then all was dark again and I was struggling as
never I had struggled in my life before. Long, stiff fingers clutched
my throat. A rigid wood-like form was pressed against my own and
my nostrils were filled with a sickly penetrating odour which I all too
sharply recognised. It was the perfume that had issued from the
sarcophagus of Ptahmes when I drove my chisel through the lead.
At first I grasped nothing but air. But clutching wildly at the things
that gripped my throat, I caught hands at last composed of bone.
There was no flesh on them, or so it seemed to me. Yet it was good
to grip something. It gave me heart. I had a horrible feeling for
some awful seconds of contending with the supernatural. But those
hands were hard and firm. They compressed my windpipe. Back and
fro we writhed. I heard nothing but my own hard breathing. I was
being slowly strangled. It was very hard to drag those hands apart.
But I am strong, stronger than many men who earn their living by
exhibiting to the vulgar feats of strength. Impelled by fear of death,
I exerted my reserve of force, and driving will and muscle into one
supreme united effort I tore the death grip from my neck and flung
the Arab off. Uttering a sobbing howl of relief and rage, I followed
him and caught him by the middle. Then stooping low, I heaved him
high and dashed him to the ground. There came a sound of
snapping wood or bones, but neither sigh nor cry of any sort. "We'll
see," I growled, and struck a match. The sand before me was
dinted, but deserted. The Arab had vanished. My senses rocked in
horrified astonishment. My flesh crept. A cold chill of vague
unreasoning terror caught me. I listened, all my nerves taut
strained, peering wildly round into the dark. But the silence was
unbroken. Nothing was to be heard, nothing was to be seen. Were it
not for the dinted sand and the marks of feet other than my own
where we had stepped and struggled, I could have come to the
conclusion I had dreamed. After a while spent in soothing panic
fears, I sneaked off to my baggage and extracted from the pile a
candle lamp. This I lighted and, returning, searched the sands on
hands and knees. The stranger's footprints were longer than my own
and they were toe-marked. Plainly, then, he had stolen on me
naked-footed. Looking wide around the dint made by his falling body
I came presently upon some more of them. They were each a yard
apart, and led towards the Hill of Rakh. Yet only for a little while.
Soon they grew fainter and fainter. Finally they disappeared.
Tortured by the mystery of it all, I halted where the footprints
vanished and, putting out the lamp, squatted on the ground to wait
for dawn. It came an hour later, but it told me nothing fresh. Indeed,
it only rendered the riddle more intolerably maddening. Where had
my Arab gone? And how had he come? For there was not a single
footprint leading to the camp. Of course he might have thrown a
cloak before him on which to walk; and thus he might have
progressed and left no trace. But wherefore such extraordinary
caution? And why should he be so anxious to conceal himself? It
was hard to give up the riddle, but easier to abandon than to solve
it. Calling philosophy to my aid and imagination, I determined that
my Arab was some mad hermit upon whose solitude Ottley had
intruded in the first instance, and I in the second. And that he had
conceived a particular animosity for some unknown reason against
my humble self and wished to kill me. Without a doubt, he had some
secret hiding-place and feared lest I should seek to discover it.
Perhaps he had found some treasure of which he had constituted
himself the jealous guardian. I felt sure, at any rate, that he was
mad. His actions had always been so peculiar and his speechlessness
so baffling and astonishing and crassly unreasonable. But he or
someone had killed my donkey. I found the poor beast lying in a
hollow, dead as Cæsar. A knife had been employed, a long, sharp-
pointed knife—perhaps a sword. It had searched out the creature's
heart and pierced it. I made a hasty autopsy in order to be sure. The
circumstance was most exasperating. It condemned me to the task
of being my own beast of burthen. And the load was not a light one.
I made, however, the best of a bad job, and having fortified myself
with a good breakfast, I started off laden like a pack-horse for the
Hill of Rakh. Having covered four miles, I stopped. Miss Ottley and
Captain Frankfort Weldon had suddenly come into view. They were
mounted. I sat down on my baggage, lighted a cigarette and waited.
Common elementary Christian charity would compel them to offer
me a lift. It was a good thought. It is not right that a man should
work like a beast. And, besides, it was cheering to see Miss Ottley
again. She came up looking rather care-worn and a good deal
surprised. I arose and doffed my hat like a courtier. Captain Weldon
touched his helmet with his whip by way of salute. He might have
just stepped out of a bandbox. I felt he did not like me. The girl
looked at me with level brows.
"Sir Robert well and strong again?" I asked.
"Quite," said Miss Ottley.
"We were on our way to pay you a visit," observed the Captain.
"Sir Robert wants me," I hazarded.
Miss Ottley shrugged her shoulders. "Does he?" she asked, then
added with a tinge of irony, "You seem content to be one of those
who are always neglected until a need arises for their services. Does
it appear impossible that we might have contemplated a friendly
call?"
"I have no parlour tricks," I explained.
Her lip curled. "You need not tell me. You left without troubling to
bid me as much as a good-day. How long ago? Three weeks. Why?"
Her tone was really imperious.
"But I left a benediction on the doorstep," I responded. "You looked
cross and I was in a hurry."
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