Love in the place of friendliness, the love of a despotic woman who had never in her life been denied or thwarted; a veiled threat as lining to the mantle of hospitality which had been thrown about him; a life-long captivity, or even death, for his freedom if he stood true to his love for Helen.
Captivity!
He shuddered involuntarily at the thought of some of the prisoners he had seen working under the lash of the overseer’s whip.
Death!
He smiled.
A few steps across the no man’s land stretching between the now and the hereafter and he would see Helen waiting for him, her lovely, fair face alight with the love of all eternity.
A great silence fell as he rose, followed by a sound like the wind as the men whispered amongst themselves.
“A fitting mate for the tiger-cat, a fitting sire for the whelps, if it were not for his blood.”
“Yea, verily,” answered Bowlegs. “’Tis a rare beauty in a man and the stature of a giant.”
“He and the Lion would be well matched in a fight.”