A shrill shout, which brought an incongruous image of Jim to mind, rang in his ears. A swirl of dark vapor filled the air. It seemed to him, however, that he held Miriam: he clasped her close. In the darkness, strange faces glared out at him and vanished. The woman responded to his embrace: she clung passionately to him. Yet there were both fire and ice in her contact, and Miriam seemed lost. Soft, fiery lips touched his, and fastened to them, they took his breath: he was buffeted, and staggered as if in a whirlwind. In the obscurity he had glimpses of other figures, and shafts of light, like swords, blindingly bright, struck through the dark. There were howlings and fierce outcries, receding and growing fainter, and a chilling gust dissipated the obscurity. The beautiful palace had disappeared: the scene was bleak and desolate; gravel and sand were underfoot and clumps of thorny bushes and stunted trees surrounded him. But he still held the form of the woman in his arms: they had failed to tear her from him; at least he so believed.
But she pressed her hands against his breast and writhed like a serpent to free herself. The cloud of hair that floated out from her in the wind was ruddy like fire. This slender, subtle face with its wild dark eyes—this was not Miriam! This was Zarga!
His arms relaxed and fell to his sides. She leaped away from him, and stood for a moment, throwing out her arms and screaming words which he could not distinguish: then she turned and fled away like a fantom, vanishing behind the thorny bushes.
He was alone in the wilderness. He took a step forward, and fell heavily on his face.
CHAPTER XI
THE ISLAND
“IS Miriam safe?” asked Lamara.
“She is safe for the present. But Zarga herself was the traitor,” replied Aunion.
“The fault was mine! She seemed so lovable that I left her too much to her own unfolding. Why should she turn against us? And at such a time!”
“A spirit undisciplined—in whom impulses of nature, blameless in themselves, are prone under temptation to unite with the evil. Torpeon, as we now know, working on the kinship between them, long since began his appeals to her vanity and ambition; and the coming of these two strangers was his opportunity to strike. Miriam for him; Jack, in exchange, for her; and the stimulus of rivalry fired the inclination which she had already conceived for him. But for the warning given us by that singular little being, Jim, the plot would have succeeded; we arrived barely in season; and much mischief was wrought, not easily to be repaired.”
“Where is Jack?”