"Never mind," she exclaimed; "let me go to his body! What care I if they do kill me, so long as I get a glimpse of his form?"
Brand, however, held her firmly.
He felt that he should at least partially atone for his crime by saving the daughter of the man he had sent to his death.
"Come! come with me! This is madness."
Mary struggled in vain. Brand drew her along with him into the shadow of a small cavern in the foot of the cliff.
"Hark!" he said, "you must not cry out."
Attracted probably by her cries, several natives soon presented themselves at the entrance of the cavern.
Brand, being unarmed, could do nothing. Several spears were pointed at his heart and that of his companion.
An islander—a huge fellow with great rings tattooed like bracelets all over both his arms; evidently a chief, interposed.
"No strike!" he exclaimed, in broken English, "this's too much quick death. Best take and chokee slow."