“There is much worse than I have told you, Virginia. So much worse that I can scarce force my lips to frame the words, but you must be told. I would be more criminally liable than your father were I to keep it from you, for my brain, at least, is not crazed. Virginia, you have in your mind a picture of the hideous thing that carried you off into the jungle?”
“Yes,” and as the girl replied a convulsive shudder racked her frame.
Von Horn grasped her arm gently as he went on, as though to support and protect her during the shock that he was about to administer.
“Virginia,” he said in a very low voice, “it is your father’s intention to wed you to one of his creatures.”
The girl broke from him with an angry cry.
“It is not true!” she exclaimed. “It is not true. Oh, Dr. von Horn how could you tell me such a cruel and terrible untruth.”
“As God is my judge, Virginia,” and the man reverently uncovered as he spoke, “it is the truth. Your father told me it in so many words when I asked his permission to pay court to you myself—you are to marry Number Thirteen when his education is complete.”
“I shall die first!” she cried.
“Why not accept me instead?” suggested the man.
For a moment Virginia looked straight into his eyes as though to read his inmost soul.