“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.