ajah's,
but I firmly declared that it was quite impossible, however tempting to
my vanity. How could I become officer over a set of cowardly, mutinous,
murderous scoundrels, even if I had been set free to undertake the task;
and in my most bitter times I told myself that I would far rather turn
the guns upon such a crew than teach them to work them.

I fully expected the rajah to come to me the next day, but he did not,
and a week had gone by, during which time, although I was growing
stronger, it was not so fast as it would have been had I felt free.

And then came a night when I was very low indeed. The monotony of my
life in that solitary place affected my spirits terribly. They were
already weak enough, consequent upon my hurts; but that time I was so
depressed that I prayed that the rajah might not come, lest I should
accept his proposal as a means of escape from a life which, in spite of
the constant attention I received, had grown unbearable. It made me so
irritable to the attendants that they shrank from coming near more often
than they could help, and I saw Salaman look at me sometimes as if he
thought that I should develop into a tyrant also, or would be a danger
to those who served.

"I know what it is," I muttered to myself that night. "He is waiting on
purpose so as to catch me in some weak moment, when I am utterly tired
out of this wretched prison, and ready to say yes."

My wretched prison, be it remembered, was a luxurious tent, with men who
were like so many slaves about me ready to obey my slightest wish; but I
was miserable, of course, all the same.

It had grown dark rapidly that evening, and there was a curious
sensation of heat in the air, great puffs coming as if from off heated
metal. Then there were distant flashes of lightning, and faint
mutterings which I knew portended a storm; and, as it drew near, I felt
a kind of satisfaction in wishing that it would be very bad, for I was
just in the frame of mind, no doubt from being weak and easily affected
by the electricity in the atmosphere, to welcome anything for a change.

"I hope it will come a regular roarer," I said to myself as I lay on my
back with my wounds aching, and the faint blue of the lightning making
my lamp look dim.

"Wish it would blow the tents all down, and scare the black scoundrels
right away."

A sensible wish, for in my weak state it meant exposure, a drenching,
and probably a feverish attack; but I was in an