Ma Mie dropped her eyes for a moment to hide the fierce light that came into them, and pretended to adjust the rich folds of her tamein.
"Yes," she said slowly, "I want revenge," and she looked at Bah Hmoay straight in the face.
"Then listen; I want your help. I am not alone, as I said. Away in the swamp lie twenty good men who would raze this place to the ground if anything were to happen to me. I, too, want revenge, and upon Jackson--he who ruined your husband, he who has hunted me until I live a beast of the field. I could kill him at any time, but that is not enough. I want him to live with a wound on his heart from which he will never recover. I will kill him afterward if it suits me, and now--stoop--see here," and the dacoit rapidly whispered to Ma Mie words that made her start back and say, "No! no!" "But I say yes--think of it--it is a vengeance worthy of a Burman. We will sack the place on the third night from this, and but one shall be spared. I shall take her to my swamp, and she shall live as my slave; but these white women are delicate, and I do not want her to die yet. I want your help, therefore--a woman needs a woman. Soh! You understand? You can name your price."
"Vengeance has no price," said Ma Mie, "and I agree."
"So be it," said the dacoit. "Then you will be ready?"
"Yes," she replied; "and now go."
"My blessing," and the dacoit rose and tottered out of the room.
"Ho, mother!" he said as he passed the old Mah Kit, "the night air is chilly for old bones; you had better go in."
"Old bones," the hag mumbled--"old bones, but eyes young yet, young yet. There is devilment abroad. What is it, daughter?" she asked as she entered the room.
"It would have been death, mother, had he stayed another five minutes. I would have put my dagger in his heart. But let me be; I will tell you all. I must think."