CHAPTER X.
AT POABJA.
For an hour and more I was left to gnash my teeth in rage as I tore and struggled fruitlessly to loosen the cords that bound me. In that hour I endured the torments such as even hell itself could not have surpassed. My violent struggles inflamed the hurt to my head until it throbbed as if it would split; but all mere physical pain was lost and deadened in the surpassing agony of mind.
The thought of that sweet, pure girl in the power of these crazy, superstitious fanatics was unendurable; and had the torture continued longer it would have driven me mad. Death threatened her every minute she was in the hands of frenzied fools such as they were; and a hundred possible ways in which they might murder her occurred to me, each stimulating the passion of my fear and anguish.
At length the door of my room was opened and Petrov and another man entered. The sight of him so maddened me that I strove to rise, bound though I was, to wreak my fury upon him.
“No harm is meant to you, Burgwan,” he said.
My answer was a volley of curses and threats so vehement and furious that he started back in alarm.
“No harm is meant to you,” he repeated.
“Loose these cords then, to prove it,” I cried.
His companion made as if to approach me when Petrov held him back.
“Not yet,” he said, turning pale with fear.