As for
the queen, I set her down for a Portuguese maiden, whose mother must
have accompanied the captain of some trading vessel, probably in search
of the Island of Gems, when, by a stroke of fate, the ship, with all
hands, had foundered, leaving Melannie the sole survivor.
Ackbau seldom spoke to me, and when he did his tone was unfriendly.
"The white man will make good sport at the coming of the snake god," he
said to me once when I had angered him by walking out with the queen,
and those with him had laughed, and had looked at me in a manner that
made me speculate upon what cruel fate it was to which they, in their
own minds, had already consigned me.
Of the tortures practised by the islanders upon those who offended
them, I was not left long in doubt. There had lately been a war, so
Melannie told me, between this people and those of an adjacent island
in which some captives had been taken who, according to custom, would
be offered in sacrifice to propitiate one of the many evil spirits whom
these benighted people worship. On the day of the sacrifice I was
bidden to be present, and not daring to refuse, I accompanied the queen
to a barren spot at the foot of the mountain where some gaunt trees
rose out of a bed of lava.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112