'Well, you _are_ rather a sight, but from what I gathered there it
seemed to me they'd be glad to see you under any conditions. I'll
look over your work here, if you like, for a couple of days, and you
can pull yourself together while Faiz Ullah feeds you up.'

Scott could walk dizzily by the time Hawkins's inspection vas ended,
and he flushed all over when Jim said of his work in the district
that it was 'not half bad,' and volunteered, further, that he had
considered Scott his right-hand man through the famine, and would
feel it his duty to say as much officially.

So they came back by rail to the old camp; but there were no crowds
near it, the long fires in the trenches were dead and black, and the
famine-sheds stood almost empty.

'You see!' said Jim. 'There isn't much more for us to do. Better ride
up and see the wife. They've pitched a tent for you. Dinner's at
seven. I'll see you then.'

Riding at a foot-pace, Faiz Ullah by his stirrup, Scott came to
William in the brown-calico riding-habit, sitting at the dining-tent
door, her hands in her lap, white as ashes, thin and worn, with no
lustre in her hair. There did not seem to be any Mrs. Jim on the
horizon, and all that William could say was: 'My word, how pulled
down you look!'

'I've had a touch of fever. You don't look very well yourself.'

'Oh, I'm fit enough. We've stamped it out. I suppose you know?'