"'I must risk that,' he said, quietly. 'Of course, at present you
are angry. It is natural that you should be so, but in time you
will forgive me, and will make allowance for the length to which my
affection for you has driven me. It may be six months, it may be
ten years, but however long it may be, I can promise you that, save
for this initial offence, you will have no cause to complain of me.
I am possessed of boundless patience, and can wait for an
indefinite time. In the end I feel sure that your heart will soften
towards me.'
"That was his tone all along. He was perfectly respectful,
perfectly polite. Sometimes for days not a word would be exchanged
between us; sometimes he would come up and talk, or rather, try to
talk, for it was seldom that he got any answer from me. As a rule I
sat in my deck chair with Anna beside me, and he sat on the other
side of the deck, or walked up and down, smoking or talking with
that man who was with him.
"So it went on till the afternoon when we saw you. As I told you,
he made us go down at once. I could see that he was furiously angry
and excited. The steward came to our cabin early in the morning,
and said that Mr. Carthew requested that we would dress and come up
at once. As I was anxious to know what was going on, I did so; and
he said when we came on deck, 'I am very sorry, Miss Greendale, but
I have to ask you to go on shore with us at once.'
"I had no idea where we were, save that it was somewhere in the
island of San Domingo; but I was ready enough to go ashore,
thinking that I might see some white people that I could appeal to.
"I did speak to some negroes as we landed, but he said, 'It is of
no use your speaking to them, Miss Greendale, for none of them
understands any language but his own.'
"I saw that they did not understand me, at any rate. I was
frightened when I saw that four of the sailors were going with us,
and that a dozen of the blacks, armed with muskets, also formed
round us. I said that I would not go afoot, but Carthew answered:
"'It would pain me greatly were I obliged to take such a step; but
if you will not go, there is no course open to me but to have you
carried. I am sorry that it should be so, but for various reasons
it is imperative that you should take up your abode on shore for
the present.'
"Seeing that it was useless to resist, I started with him. A short
distance on, two blacks came up with the horses, which had
evidently been sent for. We mounted, and were taken up among the
hills to the place where you found us. Every mile that we went I
grew more frightened, for it seemed to me that it was infinitely
worse being in his power up in those hills, than on board his
yacht, where something might happen by which I might be released
from him. Those huts you saw had been built beforehand, so that he
had evidently been preparing to take us there if there should be
any reason for leaving the yacht. There was bedding and a couple of
chairs and a table in ours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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