Kitabı oku: «One Maid's Mischief», sayfa 27
Volume Three – Chapter Two.
A Search for Gold
If anyone else on the station had even talked of making an expedition up the river beneath the beams of that ardent sun Dr Bolter would have exclaimed:
“Ah, of course. Here am I, toiling from morn to night with hand and brain, to keep you people in decent health, and yet you propose such a piece of insanity as that! Why, sir, you must be mad!”
But then the doctor was mad upon his own particular subject, and neither heat nor storm would would have kept him back. The sun now had tremendous power, and even his Malay boatmen looked hot; but the doctor’s face only shone, and he sat back in the stern, gun in hand, carefully scanning the shore, ready to bring down the first attractive specimen he saw to add to his collection.
The boat was well supplied with necessaries, including a waterproof sheet, and a handy tent if he should camp ashore; but the boat was to be for the most part his camping-place; and, according to his preconceived plan, the doctor meant to force his way right up a branch or tributary of the main river – a stream that had never yet been, as far as he knew, explored; and here he was hopeful of making his way close up to the mountains, continuing the journey on foot when the river became too narrow and swift for navigation.
In this intent the boat was steadily propelled up-stream, and at the end of the second day the Inche Maida’s campong and home had been passed, and unseen they had placed some miles between them and the Princess’s people.
The Inche Maida was very friendly, but the knowledge that she would perhaps be down before many hours were over at the station, made the doctor fix his time for passing in the dusk of the evening, for he did not wish his movements to reach his wife’s ears sooner than he could help, nor yet to be canvassed by his friends.
Hence, then, he slept that night with his boat secured to the trunk of a large cocoa-palm, well covered in from the night dew, and with a bit of quinine on the tip of his tongue when he lay down to keep off the fever.
Neither he nor his men troubled themselves about the weird noises of the jungle, nor the rushings and splashings that disturbed the river. There were dangerous reptiles and other creatures around, but they did not disturb them; and when the loud roar of a tiger was heard not many yards away, amidst the dense bushes of the shore, the doctor merely turned over and uttered a low grunt, muttering in his sleep about Mrs Bolter breathing so hard.
The next morning before the white mist had risen from the river, the Malays were busy with their paddles, and they had gone on about five or six miles when one of the men ceased rowing, and held up his hand to command silence.
“A big boat coming down the river pulled by many oars, master,” said the man, “a fighting prahu, I think. Shall we hide?”
“Hide? no,” exclaimed the doctor. “Why?”
“It may be an enemy who will make us prisoners, perhaps kill us,” said the Malay, softly. “We are thy servants, and we will go on if you say go.”
“Perhaps I had better not,” said the doctor, thoughtfully. “It would spoil the expedition. Hah! yes, I can hear the oars now. But where could we hide?”
“If the master bids us, we will place the boat so that no one passing shall see, and we can see all,” replied the Malay.
Doctor Bolter did not like hiding, but thinking that in this case discretion might be the better part of valour, he replaced his shot cartridge with ball, as he gave the signal to the man, who turned the sampan in shore; and cleverly guiding it in amongst the overhanging vegetation, this dropped behind them and they were in a verdant tunnel, the branches and leaves just touching their heads, and though themselves completely concealed, able to see everything that passed or repassed upon the river.
They had occupied their place of hiding so long, that, had he not still heard the regular beat-beat of the large boat’s oars, the doctor would have concluded that it had passed. Still it seemed wonderful how the water bore the sound, for it was what seemed to be a considerable time before they saw the prow of a long prahu come round a bend of the river with its long banks of oars making the calm surface of the rapid river foam, as the long vessel glided on, coming in very close to them, so as to cut off a good deal of the next bend.
They were so close that Doctor Bolter could note the expression upon the countenances of the men, and it seemed almost impossible that the little boat and its crew could remain unseen; but the prahu passed on, and round the next bend, the doctor waiting till the beat of the paddles was growing faint before he gave the word for them to proceed.
“Are those friends or enemies?” he said to one of the boatmen.
The Malay smiled.
“Who knows?” he said. “To-day they may be friends, to-morrow enemies. The prahu is Rajah Murad’s, and the crew his men.”
The doctor did not pay much heed to the rather oracular words of the Malay, though he recalled it all afterwards, his attention now being taken up by some choice specimens of the sunbird family, hovering about the blossoms on the banks.
Ten miles or so farther up, and the boatmen pointed to the overgrown mouth of the little river of which they were in search.
Anyone unacquainted with the place would have passed it unseen, but it had been noted down by the doctor during one of his expeditions, as a place to be explored at some future time.
The men turned the head of the sampan towards the tangled mass of bushes and overhanging trees, and then, as they drew near, one of them rose in the prow, and drew the long heavy parang he wore, a sword-like knife much used by the poorer Malays for cutting back the thorns and canes that a few days’ rapid growth led across their path; but the next moment he had lowered the weapon, and rested the point upon the edge of the boat.
“Someone has been here, master,” he said; “a big boat has broken its way through.”
“All the better for us,” said the doctor, and instead of having to cut and hack right and left, the sampan passed easily along the tangled channel, the masses of huge water-lilies giving way before the boat, while, as they got farther on past the grown-up mouth, the river seemed to widen, and the route of the vessel that had passed before could be plainly seen in a narrow channel of leaf-sprinkled water.
“That prahu must have been along here, master,” said the elder of the two Malays, thoughtfully. “No small sampan could have broken a way like this.”
“So much the better,” said the doctor again; but he grew more thoughtful, for the fact of a boat having been along this little river so lately seemed to rob it of a good deal of its mystery. He had hoped to find it completely unexplored, and here only that day someone had passed along.
It was, however, in its upper portion that the doctor hoped to find something to interest him; and after all it was not probable that the occupants of the prahu would be searching for gold.
Under these circumstances he set himself to examine the banks on either side, and his men steadily paddled on hour after hour, till a halt was made at an open part where they landed, and made a fire to cook the birds that had been shot on the way up. Then a fresh start was made, and all through the long hot afternoon the doctor sat back scrutinising most diligently the sides of the little river.
But it was always the same – one dense bank of verdure on either side, with the trees hanging over the river, and encroaching so that at last the stream was only a few yards wide; but by pulling the branches aside the boat could have been thrust in, to glide along under a natural arcade – the home of thousands of crocodiles, from monsters fifteen and twenty feet long to their spawn not many more inches.
It was a perfect paradise for a naturalist, and the doctor grew so much interested that he forgot the prime object of his visit, seeing nothing but birds and insects, to the exclusion of old gold-workings, though had there been anything of the kind it would have been completely hidden amongst the tangled, luxuriant growth.
It was growing fast towards sunset when the doctor was suddenly brought back to the matter-of-fact every-day life from a kind of dream about the wondrous beauties of some peculiar beetles he had captured and held beneath his magnifying glass, by a sudden exclamation from the elder Malay.
“What is it?” exclaimed the doctor, sharply.
“The prahu came no farther than this. See, master, we shall have to cut the branches now to get along.”
He pointed with his paddle, and it was plain enough to see that the water-weeds and lilies were unbroken higher up, and that some large vessel must have been turned here, for the aqueous growth was crushed to a much greater extent.
“There is a path there,” said the Malay, and he showed his employer the bank beaten down by footsteps, and that the bushes and trees had been cut away.
“Yes,” replied the doctor, “someone has landed there, but it does not matter. We have come to the fresh ground. Let’s get a few miles farther, and then we’ll rest.”
The doctor was so anxious to get on that no further notice of the marks of other travellers was taken, and with his spirits growing more elate as he went on, he watched the dense jungle on either side, and peered down into the black water as night came rapidly on, so swiftly indeed that they had not progressed more than a couple of miles before the darkness made a halt absolutely necessary.
The waterproof sheet made a good covering, and the night passed undisturbed, the rising sun being the signal for a fresh start; but the difficulties of the journey began rapidly to increase.
The stream that had been deep as well as swift seemed to have suddenly grown shallow, indicating by its noisy brawling, and sparkling over masses of rock, that the country was rising fast.
In fact, the course of the river was now between high escarpments of rock, the jungle and its dense masses of trees seeming to be left behind, the grasses that grew in patches amongst the chinks of the rocks being different in kind from that which tangled the jungle where it touched the water.
But in spite of the difficulties of the journey, the doctor was in ecstasies, and, regardless of getting his feet wet, he was constantly out of the boat to examine the shallow sands for signs of gold.
Volume Three – Chapter Three.
A Time of Trial
Murad was startled for the moment, Helen’s act was so unexpected. Then a calm look of satisfaction crossed his face, and he smiled as he stood there, gazing down at the swarthy beauty, and folding his arms, he waited for her to speak.
“Do you wish to abase me more than this?” she said at last, in a choking voice.
“No,” he replied, calmly, “that will do. I meant to bring the proud English beauty to my feet. See, I have done so, and very much sooner than I expected.”
Helen felt that she had made a false move, and the blood ran back to her heart, as she crouched there, trembling.
“You have brought me to your feet,” she said softly. “Be satisfied, and spare me further degradation.”
“What do you wish me to do?” he said in a low, deep voice.
“Send me back home!” she cried excitedly.
“And what then – what of your father and the Resident? What of my position at the settlement?”
“No one shall know. I will keep it all a secret.”
“And you would risk all the remarks that your appearance would excite by going back?”
“Yes!” she cried passionately, as she thought of Mr Harley, and felt that he would take her to his heart even then.
“And you honestly believe that no trouble would follow?” said Murad quietly.
“I am certain of it!” she cried. “I tell you I would keep it secret.”
“And I know better,” he said contemptuously. “My good girl, do you think I am a child? If I let them at the settlement know of the step I have taken, your people would send for help, and my country would be invaded, my campongs burned, and after they had driven me out, they would take possession of my land.”
“But I would not betray you.”
“Pish! They would discover it for themselves. They think you dead now. Let them think that you had been carried off, and my days would be but few in my land.”
“Oh, no, no!” she cried; “the English are not cruel.”
“Oh, no,” he echoed, with a derisive smile, “not cruel, only just. Look here, Helen, I have been gambling: I staked all I had, even to my life, to win you, and I have won. Now you ask me to resign my gains. It is ridiculous. How would it be – how does the matter stand? On the one hand, here is ruin to my place and people and death to myself; on the other hand, happiness and joy – the happiness of a gratified love, as I rejoice in my triumph over the woman who first made my pulses throb, and then trifled with my love.”
Helen started to her feet and shrank away, feeling instinctively that she had as much prospect of finding pity from the tigers of the jungle as from Murad.
As she retreated from him he smiled with all the consciousness of his power, and rested upon one elbow, as he reclined upon the mats, watching her movements, a very idealisation of some glistening serpent, gazing languidly at the trembling victim that has been placed within its cage, ready to be stricken down at his good pleasure.
“There,” he said, at last, “it is foolish to weary yourself and try to escape. I tell you it is impossible. You have now the skin and the dress of a Malay lady; why do you not adopt our ways as well? We are fatalists, as your people call us. When we see that a thing is to be, we take it as it comes, and do not murmur and strive against fate. You see now that it is your fate to be my favourite wife. Why should you strive against it like some dove that beats its breast against the close bars of its cage. Come,” he continued, making a place for her by his side, “let us be friends at once, Helen. You do not wish to make me angry with you, I am dangerous then.”
“Angry? With me?” she cried, her indignation asserting itself now, and her eyes flashed as they met his. “I do not fear your anger.”
“And yet it is to be feared,” he said quietly. “Ask one of the women here about my rage, and you will find that it may mean death. They fear it, and shrink from me when I frown.”
For answer, Helen strove once more to tear open the door, and then she uttered a wild and piercing shriek, for, as silently as one of the tigers of his own jungle, Murad had gathered himself up and sprung forward, catching her by the arms, and the next moment he held her strained to his breast.
Helen’s wild shriek was answered on the instant by one without; and Murad’s face became less swarthy in his rage, as he loosed his prisoner and threw open the door, admitting the younger of the two Malay girls who had been Helen’s gaolers, and who ran to the Rajah and flung herself upon his breast.
In an access of rage the Malay chief struck her across the face, and sent her staggering back, as he cursed her brutally for coming at such a time; and Helen saw how thin a veneer was the English upon the man’s nature, which now asserted itself in all its native savagery as he bade the girl go.
“No,” she cried, turning upon him in a patient, suffering way, displaying the strength of her weakness as she once more clung to his arm. “I do not mind your beating me,” she said patiently. “I am used to that: but you said you would love me always; and I will not have this strange girl come between us.”
“If you do not go – ” he said hoarsely, and he bent down and whispered to her with a menacing look, and a touch at the hilt of his kris.
“I am not afraid,” she said in the same low tone, as she clung to his arm. “You would not kill me; and you may beat me. I am used to that. I say I will not have anyone come between us and stand quietly by.”
Murad’s hand sought his kris, and his lips parted from his teeth, when he half drew the weapon from its sheath; but he mastered his savage rage as he thought of Helen, and spoke quietly and in slow, measured tones, evidently meaning her to hear and comprehend every word.
“Go,” he said, “and you can tell the others this – I have no wife now but this lady. If either of you speak evil to her or annoy her in any way you die. I shall not touch you, but you will be taken to the river. Now leave me at once.”
The girl shrank from him, and trembling in every limb, she tottered towards the door; but her attachment and jealous feelings still refused to be mastered, and turning back once more, she burst into a wild passion of weeping, and flung herself upon his breast.
“Go?” he cried angrily, and he repulsed her roughly. “You hear my words.”
He flung her away, and Helen saw her opportunity. Here was one who hated her, but might be made her friend; and as the girl staggered back from the violent thrust she had received, Helen caught her in her arms and clung to her.
For a moment the girl shrank away; but directly after she gazed wildly in her eyes, and then with an hysterical cry clasped her tightly.
“Stay with me,” whispered Helen. “I hate him! Pray stay and save me from him!”
The trembling girl seemed to grow strong as she found out more fully what her rival’s real feelings were; and as Murad angrily advanced she retreated with Helen to one corner of the room, uttering so wild and piercing a shriek that the Rajah stamped his foot with rage, and going to the door, threw it open and uttered a fierce command.
The result was, that four of the women with whose faces Helen was already familiar came running in, and Murad pointed peremptorily to the pair.
“Take her away!” he cried sharply, and the women seized Helen’s defender; but with a quick movement she snatched a little kris from within her sarong, and they fell back in alarm; while with flashing eyes she placed one arm round Helen, and gazed menacingly from one to the other, as if ready to strike at the first who should advance.
The women uttered loud cries and fled to Murad, who fiercely ordered them once more to separate the pair. No one, however, advanced, and he threw open the door and bade them go.
The women hurried out, glad to escape, and then the Rajah pointed to the open door.
“Go!” he said fiercely, and he glared wrathfully at the girl, who pressed her arm more tightly round Helen, and looked her defiance. “Will you go?” he said hoarsely; “or am I to have you torn away?”
“No one dare tear me away!” retorted the girl. “I shall stay with her, and no one shall hurt her while I’m alive.”
They spoke so quickly now that Helen could only gather a few words here and there; but she could make out how fiercely the girl was threatening to resist any attempt to separate them, even going so far as to present the point of her weapon at Murad, who shrank angrily away, and stood at last biting his lips.
“Will you go?” he cried at last, in a furious tone; and as he spoke he gazed from the girl to Helen and back again.
“No!” she cried fiercely. “I will stay with her. She shall not be your wife!”
Volume Three – Chapter Four.
More Treachery
Murad took a step towards the girl, and whispered something which Helen could not catch.
Then, turning sharply round, he dashed the curtain aside, swung open the door, and passing through, they heard the heavy bang as the curtain waved to and fro, when Helen’s defender sank trembling to her knees, her eyes closed, and the little weapon with which, but a minute before, she was ready to menace the Rajah’s life, fell with a musical tinkle upon the floor.
The noise startled her, and she opened her eyes to gaze piteously at the fallen curtain, and ended by bursting into a passionate fit of weeping.
Helen let her hands fall upon the Malay girl’s shoulder, eager to speak her thanks, but hesitating, as she felt that it would be better to let the outbreak have its course.
In this spirit she waited quite patiently, listening eagerly though for the slightest sound without that should betoken the Rajah’s return; but all remained silent till suddenly the girl rose and turned upon her angrily.
“Why did you come?” she cried; “he loved me before he saw you. Go: you make me hate you, and I shall kill you for it if you stay.”
For the moment Helen felt angry. At such a time the girl’s want of reason was irritating; but seeing that she was almost beside herself with jealous grief, she advanced and laid a hand upon the weeping girl’s arm.
“You know I hate him,” she said gently, “and that I would give the world to get away.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know,” sobbed the girl; and her anger gave place to a most effusive display of affection. “Yes, I know, but it is so hard to bear. He used at one time to love me so well, and now he is quite changed for the sake of you. Why do you not go?”
“Will you show me the way?” cried Helen, eagerly.
“The way?” said the girl.
“Yes; how to escape – to get back to my own people.”
“Do you really want to go back?” said the girl, looking at her searchingly.
“Yes, yes; oh yes,” was the reply. “I’ll give you anything to help me away. You shall be made rich, and I will care for you and love you like a sister, only save me from this man.”
The girl fixed her great dark eyes upon Helen’s, and seemed to be trying to read her thoughts.
“It is very strange!” she said at last.
“What is strange? That I should ask you to save me?”
“No,” said the girl, dreamily; “that anyone should be able to hate Murad. He has been cruel to me, but I could never hate him, even though others have talked to me and tried to get my love. Hamet has loved me, he tells me, and that he is unhappy because I am cold; but I could never hate Murad, and the more cruel he is to me, the more he seems to have my love.”
“But it troubles you that he should make love to me?”
“Yes,” hissed the girl, fiercely. “It makes me mad.”
“Then help me to escape; help me to get away,” cried Helen, clinging to her passionately.
“And if I do he will kill me,” sighed the girl.
“Then do not stay here,” whispered Helen, glancing suspiciously at the great curtain, which seemed to wave to and fro, and moved as though some one were listening close behind.
“Do not stay?” said the girl, wonderingly.
“No. Let us escape together.”
“But to leave Murad?”
“He does not love you now.”
“But Hamet does; he would grieve. They would follow and kill me.”
“No, no. You shall not be harmed,” said Helen, excitedly. “I will protect you. You shall live with me.”
“No,” said the girl, sadly, “I could not go away and leave Murad. He is cruel to me, but I cannot be cruel to him. He would want me if I was gone.”
“But you say he would kill you if you stayed?”
“Yes,” sighed the girl. “He would kill me for helping you to escape if he found me out.”
“Then come with me and let my people protect you,” whispered Helen, excitedly. “Why should you stay here when I can give you a happier and better home?”
“Happier! better!” said the girl. “No; there is no life for me that could be happier when he is kind. There can be no better place than this.”
Helen passed her arm round her, for there was something beautiful in the girl’s faith and love for the tyrant who abused her affection at every turn; and the girl, feeling the unusual caress, turned to her lovingly.
“Tell me once again,” she said, “that you really mean it – that you would be glad to go,” and she looked searchingly in Helen’s eyes.
“I would sooner die than stay,” cried Helen, who had to repeat her words twice before she could make herself understood.
“Then let me think,” said the girl, quietly; “let me think how it can be done, for we should like to live and be happy once again.”
“As we shall be, if you help me to escape and come with me and share my home. Let us steal down to a boat as soon as it is dark, and then we can soon reach the great river by floating with the stream.”
The girl smiled sadly.
“You forget,” she said, “Murad’s people will watch us, for we are prisoners now.”
There was no doubt about this being the case, for door and window were securely fastened, as the girl showed with a smile, becoming very thoughtful directly after, and making impatient gestures every time Helen tried to draw her into conversation.
And so the day wore on, with the prisoner’s heart sinking as she saw the approach of night.
It was just at the time when her spirits were at their lowest ebb that the girl turned to her suddenly and caught her by the arm.
“I have been thinking,” she said, “and you shall go free.”
She spoke in her own tongue, and Helen had great difficulty in comprehending her, but the peril sharpened her understanding; and by making the girl repeat her words, she arrived at a pretty correct interpretation.
“And you will go with me?” whispered Helen, eagerly.
“A little while ago I felt that I could never leave Murad; but he is cruel, and he loves me no longer now. I will go.”
Helen’s heart throbbed with joy, as she caught the girl to her breast and kissed her passionately, loosing her though directly, for the door was suddenly opened, and they saw a group of four women standing there, evidently bearing food.
“Come and fetch it,” said one of them to Helen’s companion, for they did not attempt to enter the room.
The girl left Helen and went to the door, to return, bringing the materials for a respectable meal, returning again for water and palm wine, with vessels for drinking, and once more returning for the fruit that the women produced.
Helen was watching their movements intently and suspiciously, she hardly knew why, when suddenly, as the girl was taking a bunch of plantains from one of the women, another threw her arms round her neck and clasped her tightly, with the result that the others seized her as well; there was a slight struggle, the door was slammed to, and as Helen ran to it with throbbing heart, she heard the noise of renewed struggling, the excited angry cries of her poor companion, and these seemed to be dying away for a time, and then to suddenly end as if they had been stifled.
Helen Perowne was brave enough in her way; but the sounds of this struggle, the cries, and their sudden ending, coupled with the threats lately uttered by Murad, made her shudder as she turned, wet with the cold perspiration that gathered upon her face.
What did it mean – that sudden silence? Had they suffocated the poor girl, or had they slain her by some more sudden and deadly stroke?
Helen tried hard to maintain her composure; but her dread increased, and she tottered back to the mats that served her for a couch, to sink down, trembling in every limb.
It was a terrible ordeal, and the more she realised the horrors of her position the more deeply she regretted her conduct to Murad.
For evidently beneath his thin veneer of European manners the Rajah was a remorseless Eastern tyrant, ready to do anything – to sacrifice anything to obtain his wishes.
Unknowingly, or rather carelessly, and with her customary indifference, she had made this man her determined pursuer; and as she thought this, she turned faint, feeling that her position was hopeless in the extreme; and for the moment she felt as if she would go mad.
A violent flood of tears relieved her overburdened brain, and at last she sat up, thinking of her chances of escape, and wondering whether she had let her imagination run riot, and the girl was after all only in a fresh place of confinement.
She decided to take this hopeful view of the case; and feeling better, her eyes lit upon the food that had been brought in, and of which she partook, not so much from choice as from a belief in its being necessary for her strength, which she feared might fail her at any time, perhaps in the direst moment of her need.
Seating herself, then, beside the food, she was trying to eat, when the door was again opened, and one of the women entered quietly, bearing a lighted English lamp.
Helen eagerly questioned her respecting her late companion; but the woman either did not or professed not to understand, merely placing the tall lamp upon a mat on the floor, and hurrying away, seeming as it were to disappear in the gloom on the other side of the lamp, and directly after she heard the door close.
She sat listening, but all was very still. The sun had sunk, and the darkness was coming on so rapidly that she felt thankful for the lamp; and then she turned longingly towards the water and wine that had been brought to her, but which she shrank from touching lest they should happen to contain some drug.
Her thirst seemed to increase at the very sight of the drinking-vessels; and the more she tried wrench away her eyes, the more they sought the large native bottles and cups.
“I cannot bear it!” she panted at last, and bending down, she took the vessel containing the water, poured some out, and after tasting it suspiciously, with her throat growing parched with intense longing, she felt satisfied that the water was pure, and drank a long and hearty draught.
She set the cup down with a sigh of pleasure; and then her blood ran cold, for her sigh seemed to be echoed from out of the gloom near the door.
Murad was standing there, leaning against the doorpost, and it was evident to her now that he had entered when the woman brought in the lamp, and that he had been watching her ever since.
