Your blood is cold. It does not run warm as mine does
when I hold you to me."
I tried to pacify her, but she would not be satisfied.
"You do not love me! You cannot love me!" she repeated. "They want me
to give you to the snake god. Why should I keep you if you do not love
me?"
This was the first time she had threatened me, and I began to realize
that the love she professed was tempered by a degree of venom which at
any moment might consign me to some cruel death.
Surely no man was placed in such a dilemma as that in which I now found
myself. In all my adventures I had never felt so helpless as I did when
dealing with this wilful queen. I dared not tell her of my love for
Anna Holstein, for I knew that such a confession would quickly seal my
doom. Yet I could not return her love, for Anna was never out of my
thoughts. Meanwhile Ackbau watched us closely, content to bide his
time.
The people upon this island were unlike any I had previously met with.
I conjectured that in ages past some tribe of Indians had migrated to
it, for that Indian blood flowed in the veins of its present
inhabitants seemed beyond doubt. Their intelligence exceeded that of
aborigines, and their language contained words of Hindu origin.
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