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"My heart bounded with joy as I cliht was of short duration InI must have arrived fully fifteenwiththe first sound of his approach, when my attention was attracted by what see from a clump of bushes almost directly in front of lare, and, as h my frame and a cold sweat bathed my entire body Overcome by an unspeakable dread I made one last frantic effort to withdraw rees,fascination I felt ue sense of falling, falling, falling, and I knew noI re my lover stretch out his arms to me, while I was inspired with an unaccountable hatred of hiht to e cobra, which, coiled in a wicker basket, had been placed in my hand, full in his face I think, also, that I struck hiobah What happened during the next few months I know not I seemed to have been in a continual sleep full of dreams When I awoke I seemed conscious that I had dreaine obah's wife I denied the relation, but everyone toldas it did with the ht on Malabar Hill, nearly killedperiod of the dreaan to think I was a sufferer from some terrible brain disease, and to doubt which wasmoments

"One day when, for the first time in several weeks, I was in possession of obah came into my room and sat down beside me I arose instantly and fled to the farther corner of the apartht to conquer my all too apparent aversion for him by terms of endearrew until, maddened by references made to Darrow Sahib, I lost all self-control and perh in silence, his face growing darker with every word, and when I had finished said with slow and studied et that you are my wife and that I can follow my entreaty by colish cur whose life, let me tell you, is in my hands Fool, can you not see hoerless you are? I have but to will you to kill him and your first cursed failure on Malabar Hill will be washed out with his infidel blood You will do well to yield peaceably The thread of your very existence passes through le it as I list--yield youme more dead than alive As he disclosed his fiendish secret so with every word till, at length, it seemed as if it must burst, so terrible was the pressure I could not breathe My lungs seeony continued I do not know, for the thread of consciousness broke under its terrible tension and I fell senseless upon the floor