It was some few moments after she had been seized again, and this time
held by two hands stronger than her own, that Helen Perowne realised the
fact that it was the Malay girl that had shown her the most compassion
who had taken her by the arm.
"What are you doing here?" was whispered in a low, angry voice.
Helen made no reply, and as she clung to the window, the girl went on:
"You were trying to get away, but it is of no use. Murad knew that when
they brought you here. If you could get out of this place you could not
go far through the jungle before the tigers would tear you down. No one
kills them here. He has them kept that he may hunt them; but when the
time for hunting them comes, Murad is away with the English people, or
he is not well, or he has no elephants, so the tigers are never touched.
They would tear you down, I say, and when Murad's men searched for you,
they would only find your bones. I remember two girls escaping to the
jungle, but they were both killed."
"Better that than stay here," said Helen, in a low, excited voice.
"Listen to me," she continued, striving hard to make herself understood;
"you do not like me--you do not want me here."
"No!" said the girl, fiercely. "I wish you had not come--that you would
go and be killed; but if you were to escape, Murad would kill us all;
and I do not want to die--no--not yet."
"No, no; he would not be so cruel," whispered Helen, who trembled with
hope and excitement, as she felt that a chance for escape had at last
come. "Help me to get away--to get back to my friends!" she cried,
appealingly. "Let me escape, and I will reward you--I will give you
what you like. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, I know what you say," replied the girl, "but I do not believe it.
You are the English lady who made the Rajah love you because he was so
handsome. We know all here; and now that he has brought you, what is
this you tell me--that you want to go away? Oh, no! it is like a little
child. I do not believe one word!"
"But it is true!" whispered Helen. "Speak lower, or you will waken
her," said the girl; "and she hates you more than I!"
"I will obey you in anything," whispered Helen, restraining her voice,
and sinking down and clutching the girl's knees, "only help me to
escape, and my father will fill your hands with gold."
"What use would it be to me?" said the girl with a quiet little laugh.
"I will give you anything you ask!" panted Helen excitedly, as she
seemed to see a faint chance of the girl yielding.
"Do you not understand what would happen if I helped you to go?" said
the girl, quietly.
"No; I cannot tell," replied Helen, "but I will not mind the danger."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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