It was to the excellent Saïmira that I owed this diversion, and to whom I was, moreover, indebted to my not dying of suffering and shame during that terrible night.
This is how she managed to deliver me from my tormentors. By an affected coquetry she aroused Karabouffi’s jealousy so thoroughly, that, exasperated and furious, he dragged her from the saloon, when, as a matter of course, he was accompanied in his exit by his entire court.
In a word, I was left alone.
This unhoped-for respite inspired me with a project which I proceeded to put in execution with the promptitude of despair.
CHAPTER IX.
I barricade myself in.—I am besieged.—The verandah becomes a fort.—What I discover at the end of a forgotten room.—Lord Campbell’s journal.—What this journal says.—The Malay pirates and the Sultan of Sooloo.—Three hundred junks.—A formidable hunt.—Death of a mysterious and colossal mandrill.—Explanation of the white skeleton.—Torture of a man compelled to drink nothing but excellent old wine.—A poignard stuck in the sand.—The last fête at the station.—How it terminates.—End of an unfinished journal.
