“Will you, indeed, Louba Hanem? I challenge you to try it. You will find that even your royal father will be powerless to save either your lover or yourself.”
With a snake-like motion of her supple body the vindictive creature glided to one of the windows opening out on to the veranda and was about to issue forth on her dangerous errand, when, with one bound, Frederick was alongside of her, and, grasping her firmly by the arm, exclaimed:
“What is it you want? Is it money? If so, you shall have it! If you will only be silent! Speak! What do you require?”
With a look of unutterable scorn, she replied:
“Keep your money. It is revenge that I seek! Your touch defiles me! Let me go, or it will be the worse for you! Are you then so anxious to die a few minutes sooner that you dare to tempt me thus?”
Tearing away her arm from Frederick's grasp, she drew a long stiletto or dagger from her bosom and made a violent lunge at his heart. Frederick, now thoroughly infuriated, and realizing the fact that he had to deal with a desperate and half-crazy woman, wrenched the knife from her and hurled it away among the shrubs in the garden. For one moment she struggled desperately to release herself, but seeing that it was of no avail and that the young man's slender hands held her like a vise, she uttered one loud cry for assistance, which rang through the silence of the night.
“Curse you, be quiet! you she-devil!” hissed Frederick in her ear. “If you utter another sound, I will kill you.”
“IF YOU UTTER ANOTHER SOUND, I WILL KILL YOU.”
Once more the girl attempted to scream, but Frederick's fingers clutched her throat like steel and stifled her voice. For the space of several seconds—they seemed to him so many hours—he maintained his grasp, and when at length he released his hold the slight body of the girl fell with a dull thud to the tessellated floor of the veranda. Instinctively he bent down over her, and suddenly, with a thrill of horror, realized that she was dead.