“Still, I can’t help thinking that, if she had anything to do with carrying off Helen Perowne, she ought to be punished; and mind this, though I care nothing for Helen now, if it proves afterwards that she helped in that cruel affair, I’ll have no mercy upon her.”
“She had nothing to do with it, take my word,” said Chumbley, who had grown so excited that he forgot to drawl. “Here’s the case, depend upon it. She got to know that Murad meant to carry off Helen, and she thought that she would do the same by you.”
“Wretched creature!”
“Say silly child,” said Chumbley. “These people have half of them the cleverness and weak, petty ways of children combined.”
“Then you feel certain that Murad alone carried off Helen?”
“I lay a hundred to one he has. Harley’s right. When do we start?”
“In an hour’s time. The scoundrel has not been seen by any of his people in Sindang, so they say.”
“We shall have some warm work up there in the jungle.”
“No doubt of it; but we’ll rout the serpent out—Oh, here is Harley!”
The Resident was coming up hastily from the landing-stage, followed by a couple of soldiers leading a Malay between them.