“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.