So entirely was Io absorbed in prayer that she did not notice when Mouang was reached. “What are your wishes, my love?” asked Oscar, as he helped his wife out of the litter. “Shall we to-morrow proceed again towards Tavoy, or return to Moulmein?” Coldstream had to repeat the question before Io could even understand it; she was like one awakened from sleep.
“I do not wish to go on,” Io then replied in a faint voice. “Let us rest for a while in the village if you will, and then go back to our home.”
Io’s extreme quietness disturbed Oscar; it was not in her nature to be so passive. There was no talking over the night’s adventures, no remarks about the Karen deliverer. If she spoke, it was like one who speaks in a dream.
“It is the effect of past terror,” said Oscar to himself; but he was mistaken in the supposition. Io had almost for the time forgotten the danger through which she had passed, her mind was so filled with the question, “What can it be that separates my beloved from his God?”
The Karen villagers were asleep in their huts when, at the dead of night, the travellers approached Mouang; but the voice of Ko Thah Byu soon roused them from their slumbers. Everything that could be done for the comfort of the white strangers was done with all possible haste. The family who occupied the cleanest bamboo hut hospitably gave it up to the lady. It was not the hour for milking cows or goats, fruit was scarce, bread and green vegetables not to be had; but a fire was lighted, rice hastily boiled, and dried river-fish, with the dainties of red chillies and garlic, with leaves for plates, supplied the Coldstreams and Maha with a midnight meal. Io could eat little—her appetite was gone; but she was thankful to lie down and rest, and try to forget her troubles in sleep.
Io was awakened in the morning by the beating of a small gong suspended from the branch of a tree. She started to a sitting posture, a little alarmed by the sound.
“It is only the call for the villagers to assemble for morning prayer,” said Oscar, entering the hut with a large earthen vessel of fresh milk in his hand. “Would you like to be present, my love?”
Io assented; and Oscar, who had been up for some time, left her to make her morning preparations, and offer up her early devotions. During the course of the night, the lost mules with their drivers had made their appearance at Mouang, Ko Thah Byu having sent a Karen guide after them to show them the way.
Before Io rejoined her husband, the e............