The alarm was not of long duration, for it soon became evident that
Murad was still under the influence of the powerful narcotic. He did
not see either of the other occupants of the room, but staggered here
and there for a few moments, and then sank heavily once more upon the
mats, placing his head in an easy position, and falling into a heavy
sleep, his breathing sounding deep and regular to the trembling girls.
"We need not mind," said the Malay girl at last. "He cannot hear me. I
will climb up."
The bars of the window formed a ladder for her ascent, and she clambered
slowly up till her feet were resting upon the topmost bar. Then there
was a rustling and cutting noise, and every now and then a dull pat, as
of something falling into the bushes below.
It was a terrible position for Helen, who, unable to assist, could only
listen and keep her eyes fixed on Murad, whom she momentarily expected
to see arise wrathfully and call for help to seize the brave girl
working so hard without to obtain freedom for both.
Then, as the Rajah still remained breathing heavily, another form of
dread attacked her; she felt sure that some of the guards or people must
hear this loud rustling noise, so that it was with an intense feeling of
relief that Helen heard the sounds cease. Then there was a louder
rustling as of someone drawing herself up, and directly after the Malay
girl climbed down into the room, Helen clasping her tightly in her arms.
The girl freed herself hastily and went across to where Murad lay
sleeping, bent down over him, gazing steadily in his face, and then
turned with a bitter laugh.
"I have said good-bye to him, so now let us go. If I look at him again
I shall never be able to leave. Let us escape."
"But how?" exclaimed Helen, helplessly.
"How?" said the girl. "Why, as I came in. I have opened the way," and
she pointed to the ragged hole in the palm thatch.
"I could not climb up there," exclaimed Helen, with a look of
helplessness and despair in her countenance; "it is impossible!"
"You white people!" cried the girl--"you are poor, and weak, and
helpless! But come, you must go. Murad will soon waken, and what will
you do then?"
The mention of that name and the prospect of the awaking seemed to nerve
Helen to the effort she was called upon to make; and in answer to a
fresh demand made upon her by her companion, she declared her readiness.
"I will go first," said the girl, and with the nimbleness of a cat she
seized the bars of the window, went up them like a ladder, and with an
agility that made Helen, as she watched her in the dim light shed up
there by the lamp, look upon her movements as almost miraculous.
Drawing herself quickly up, she passed through the hole in the attap
roof, crawling right out; and directly after, having turned, Helen saw
her leaning through.
"Now, come--quick!" whispered the girl. "Step up the window-bars as I
did, and then give me your hands. You shall not fall; I will hold you."
Helen made a couple of weak, ineffective trials to climb up and reach
her friend, but sank back, and was ready to burst into feeble tears and
give up in despair; but Murad uttered some angry words and threw out one
arm, which fell heavily back upon the floor.
The noise electrified Helen, who darted to the window-bars, and how she
managed she hardly knew, but she climbed up, caught spasmodically at the
Malay girl's hand, at the bamboo rafters, and partly by her own effort,
partly by the girl's exertion, was dragged up through the palm-leaf
roof, and sat with her companion holding on tightly to the steep slope.
Here she rested, panting and trembling, so that the girl did not make
any further effort for a few minutes, and even then it was Helen who
proposed that they should move, placing her lips close to the other's
ear, and asking wildly what they should do next.
For answer the girl climbed over her, made Helen move slightly, and
then, seating herself with the legs through the hole, she took off the
sarong worn veil-fashion over her shoulders, and twisting it tightly,
tied it to the one Helen wore, making of the two a strong silken rope,
one end of which she secured to the trembling prisoner's left wrist.
"Now," she whispered, "I will hold you by this. Let yourself slide
softly till you touch the bars with your feet, and then climb down.
Afterwards hang from the sarongs, and I will lower you as far as I can."
Helen drew a long, deep breath, trembling the while, for the height and
position in which they were seemed to her to be awful!
But she did not shrink now; she felt committed to the desperate
enterprise; and holding on by the tough palm-leaves, she lowered herself
down the steep roof, and then clung to the woodwork with all her
strength, as her feet were suspended now over the darkness, and she
sought foothold for them with desperate haste.
But for the steady strain upon her wrist she would have fallen; but this
encouraged her to renewed effort, and after a few trials, and just as
she began to feel that her task was hopeless, her right foot touched and
rested upon one of the bars, and taking a fresh hold, she stepped down,
slipped, was held by the tight tension of the silken rope, saved
herself, and the next minute stood panting, with hands and feet
sustained by the stout bamboo trellis of the window.
Here she paused for a few moments, when once more it was Murad who
startled her into action, and she lowered herself down till she was
hanging by the sill of the window, seeking for some support for her
feet, her companion jerking the sarong sharply to urge her on.
But Helen had exhausted herself by her efforts, and could do no more.
She tried once feebly, but there was no result; and to make matters
worse, the Malay girl was now straining the sarong, as if afraid that
she would fall.
There was a faint cry, a slip, the sarong was held tightly, and Helen
fell with a jerk that seemed to drag her left arm from the socket. She
swung for a moment, and the silken rope was lowered so rapidly that she
seemed to be falling. Then she did fall with a crash amongst the
bushes, what seemed to her to be an immense distance, though it was only
some half-dozen feet, and she lay perfectly still, feeling that she was
terribly hurt.
She was half stunned by the fall and the excitement; but her companion
climbed down lightly, and bent over her in the darkness.
"Quick!" she whispered. "Someone must have heard you fall? Are you
hurt?"
"I don't know. Not much," faltered Helen, as she struggled to her feet,
the girl meanwhile hastily rolling the sarong round Helen's arm,
catching then at her hand, and half dragging her through the tangled
bushes, whose thorns checked them, tearing their garb, while every now
and then they had to stoop and creep beneath the trees.
In this way they had made some fifty yards towards safety, when a fierce
snarling growl, which they both knew well enough to be that of a tiger,
sounded away in front; and almost simultaneously there was the report of
a gun, then of another, and lights could be seen in the direction from
which they had come.
"Which is it to be," said the girl, hoarsely, "Murad or the tiger? Say
which you will choose, for they will either of them kill us without
mercy?"