'You promised me my life,' I whimpered.
'Your life,' he cried. 'Yes, you shall have your life; and before long you will pray for death.'
'But I saved the Collar,' I pleaded. 'Henriques would have stolen it. I brought it safe here, and now you have got it.'
Meantime I was pulling myself up on the shelf, and loosening with one hand a boulder which overhung the pool.
'You have been repaid,' he said savagely. 'You will not die.'
'But my life is no use without liberty,' I said, working at the boulder till it lay loose in its niche.
He did not answer, being intent on examining the Collar to see if it had suffered any harm.
'I hope it isn't scratched,' I said. 'Henriques trod on it when I hit him.'
Laputa peered at the gems like a mother at a child who has had a fall. I saw my chance and took it. With a great heave I pulled the boulder down into the pool. It made a prodigious splash, sending a shower of spray over Laputa and the Collar. In cover of it I raced up the shelf, straining for the shelter of the juniper tree.
A shot rang out and struck the rock above me. A second later I had reached the tree and was scrambling up the crack beyond it.