and now he had it cornered behind Nina's
chair. To the left, to the right they dodged, the chair rocking madly
between them, she sending out shriek after shriek at every feint, and he
growling meaningless curses through his hard set teeth. "Oh! the
fiendish noise that split his head and seemed to choke his breath.--It
would kill him.--It must be stopped!" An insane desire to crush that
yelling thing induced him to cast himself recklessly over the chair with
a desperate grab, and they came down together in a cloud of dust amongst
the splintered wood. The last shriek died out under him in a faint
gurgle, and he had secured the relief of absolute silence.

He looked at the woman's face under him. A real woman! He knew her. By
all that is wonderful! Taminah! He jumped up ashamed of his fury and
stood perplexed, wiping his forehead. The girl struggled to a kneeling
posture and embraced his legs in a frenzied prayer for mercy.

"Don't be afraid," he said, raising her. "I shall not hurt you. Why do
you come to my house in the night? And if you had to come, why not go
behind the curtain where the women sleep?"

"The place behind the curtain is empty," gasped Taminah, catching her
breath between the words. "There are no women in your house any more,
Tuan. I saw the old Mem go away before I tried to wake you. I did not
want your women, I wanted you."

"Old Mem!" repeated Almayer. "Do you mean my wife?"

She nodded her head.

"But of my daughter you are not afraid?" said Almayer.

"Have you not heard me?" she exclaimed. "Have I not spoken for a long
time when you lay there with eyes half open? She is gone too."

"I was asleep. Can you not tell when a man is sleeping and when awake?"

"Sometimes," answered Taminah in a low voice; "sometimes the spirit
lingers close to a sleeping body and may hear. I spoke a long time
before I touched you, and I spoke softly for fear it would depart at a
sudden noise and leave you sleeping for ever. I took you by the shoulder
only when you began to mutter words I could not understand. Have you not
heard, then, and do you know nothing?"

"Nothing of what you said. What is it? Tell again if you want me to
know."

He took her by the shoulder and led her unresisting to the front of the
verandah into a stronger light. She wrung her hands with such an
appearance of grief that he began to be alarmed.

"Speak," he said. "You made noise enough to wake even dead men.