“That is not true, Simi,” she replied quietly, “Yet when I spoke to her of our voyage, her heart's wishes came to her lips, and I knew that she would ask to come with thee, even as I know that thou wilt not leave her here to die.”
I could make no answer for the time. What was coming over me, that I could listen to such a suggestion with patience? What a strange influence did this girl Niâbon possess that I, a sensible man, felt she could and would make me yield to her wishes, and let a sickly, delicate woman like Mrs. Krause accompany me on a voyage that presented nothing but danger. The fever must have weakened my brain, I thought.
But then, on the other hand, Mrs. Krause was a free agent. She had no children. Her husband had just been killed. I, the only other white man on the island to whom she could look to for social intercourse at long intervals, was leaving the island. Her mind had been tortured, and her life made miserable by her brute of a husband. Could I, as a man, leave her among a community of naked savages to fret out her life? She wished to come with me. Well, I should tell her of the dangers—aye, and the horrors—of such a voyage as I was bent upon. I should conceal nothing from her—nothing, absolutely nothing. I should tell her of how the wife of the captain of the ship Octavia, from Sydney to Singapore, had seen her husband die, and the famishing crew of the boat which had left the burnt ship, drag his body from her with savage curses and threats, and——
“Simi.”
“What is it, Niabon? What would you have me do? Why do you tempt me to let this poor, weak lady accompany me on a voyage, which will, most likely, end in death to us all?”
“There will be danger, but no death,” she replied dreamily, turning her face away from me towards the sea, and slowly extending her arms; “and thou, Simi—thou shalt gain thy heart's desire. For I have seen it all, even as I see it now.”
“My heart's desire! Tell me what is my heart's desire?”
I stepped up to her and placed my hand gently on her head, and, bending down, saw that her eyes were closed.
“My heart's desire, Niabon? tell me what is my heart's desire,” I said again, and as I spoke I caught my breath, and tried hard to steady myself.
“Fame, Fame! The praise of men for a great deed! This is thy heart's desire, Simi. To do such things as were done by the three men of whom thou dreame——”