“You are to join the doctor and his family, and if you value your life, help his highness by reasoning with them, so that his wishes may be obeyed at once.”
“He is still set upon this atrocity?”
“Yes; he is determined that the poor lady shall be his wife.”
“And if we all refuse and set him at defiance?”
“What good?” said the Tumongong, bitterly.
“I cannot do it, man,” cried Mr Braine. “Tell me where are those boys?”
“I cannot—I do not know.”
“But—you have always been my friend—is there no way out of this difficulty?”
The Tumongong was silent.
“Yes,” continued Mr Braine; “there is that way. His death or imprisonment. Is not the time ripe?”