The sky, as she glimpsed it from her bed between the veranda eaves and the railings, looked curiously dark and had a lurid tinge.
Lifting herself slightly, she became aware that Colin was in the veranda with his back to her, looking out over the plain.

The set of his figure as he bent forward, with his hands on the railings and his eyes apparently strained towards the horizon, reminded her of the determined hunch of his square shoulders and the dogged droop of his head when he had ridden away with Harris and the Organizer.
She called faintly, 'Colin.' He turned round instantly and came to the bed.

She stared up at him, frightened at the look in his face....

Something dreadful must have happened.

She was too weak to go over coherently in her mind the sequence of events and feelings.