The Dash for Khartoum | Page 5

dozen others of
similar pattern if they were all unmarked."
"But a sheep can pick out his own lamb among a hundred, doctor, and I
am sure they are alike as so many peas. Surely that must be maternal
instinct?"
"Not in the smallest degree, Arbuthnot. The sheep and other animals
possess in a very high degree a sense which is comparatively
rudimentary in human beings. I mean, of course, the sense of smell. A
sheep knows her lamb, and a cow knows her calf, neither by the sense
of hearing or by that of sight. She recognizes it solely and wholly by
her sense of smell, just as a dog can track its master's footsteps out of a
thousand by the same sense. The two babies are as alike as twins; and I
am not surprised that, if they really got mixed, this woman should not
be able to detect one from the other."
"It is an awful thing for Clinton," the major said. "Here he has got a
splendid estate, and he will never be certain whether his own son or a
stranger is going to inherit it after him. It is enough to make a man go

out of his mind."
"I don't see that that would be likely to mend matters," the doctor said
dryly; "in fact it would lessen the one chance that exists of ever setting
the matter straight. As I have told him, though these children are very
much alike at present--and indeed most babies are--it is probable that as
they grow up there will no longer be any resemblance whatever, and
that his own child will develop a likeness either to him or Mrs. Clinton,
while the other child will resemble the sergeant or his wife."
"We must hope it will be so," the major said, "though there are lots of
fellows who don't resemble in the least either of their parents. But what
is Clinton going to do about it?"
"He has not settled yet. His wife was in no condition to discuss the
matter, poor lady! My suggestion was that he should bring up both the
children as if they were his own, until one or other of them develops
this likeness that I was speaking of."
"I suppose that is the best thing they can do, doctor; but it will be an
awful business if, as they grow up, no likeness to anybody can be
detected in either of them."
"Well, major, although at present it does seem an awful thing, it won't
seem so bad at the end, say, of twenty years. They will naturally by that
time be as fond of one as the other. The boys, in fact, will be like twins;
and I suppose the property can be divided in some such way as it would
be were they really in that relation to each other."
"But, you see, doctor," one of the captains said, "Mrs. Humphreys has
to be considered to a certain extent too. It is hard on Mrs. Clinton; but
if she gets both boys she is certain at any rate that one of them is her
son, and Mrs. Humphreys will, by that arrangement, have to lose her
child altogether. That seems to me pretty rough on her."
"Well, she brought it on herself," the doctor replied. "The whole thing
has arisen from her carelessness."

"Do you think it was carelessness, doctor?" the major asked.
"That is a matter on which I will give no opinion, major. It is one upon
which one man can form a judgment as well as another. The thing may
very well have happened in the way she describes; and again it may be
a very cunningly devised plot on her part. It is evident she had
everything to gain by such an accident. She would get her child taken
off her hands, educated, and provided for. She would calculate no
doubt that she would be their nurse, and would expect, in return for
giving up her claim to one or other of them, some very distinct
monetary advantages. I do not at all say that the affair was not an
accident. Upon the contrary, I admit that it was an accident which
might very well happen under the circumstances. What I do say is,
nothing could have turned out better for her."
Just as tiffin was finished, Captain Clinton's soldier-servant came into
the mess-room with the request that Dr. Parker should go across to his
master's bungalow. "Well, doctor," Captain Clinton said as he entered,
"in the first place I want you to go up and see my wife, and give her a
sedative or something, for she is terribly upset over this affair; and in
the next place I want to tell you that we have