it was
Samson.

The "King" struck a match. Yes! it was Samson, poor fellow, with a
dagger firmly planted in his heart.

Near by, something white caught my eye attached to the lintel of the
doorway. It was a piece of paper held there with a sailor's knife. I
tore it off in a frenzy, and--the "King" striking another match--we read
it together. It bore but a few words, written all in capital letters
with a coarse pencil:

"WILL RETURN THE LADY IN EXCHANGE FOR THE TREASURE," and it was signed
"H.P.T."

CHAPTER XIV

_In Which I Lose My Way._

I stood a full minute with the astonishing paper in my hand, too stunned
to speak or move. It seemed too incredible an outrage to realise. Then a
torrent of feelings swept over me--wild fear for her I loved, and
impotent fury against the miscreant who had dared even to conceive so
foul a sacrilege. To think of her beauty subject to such coarse
ruffianism! I pictured her bound and gagged and carried along through
the brush in the bestial grasp of filthy negroes, and it seemed as
though my brain would burst at the thought.

"The audacity of the fellow!" exclaimed the "King," who was the first to
recover.

"But Calypso!" I cried.

The "King" laid his hand on my shoulder, reassuringly.

"Don't be afraid for her," he said. "I know my daughter."

"But I love her!" I cried, thus blurting out in my anguish what I had
designed to reveal in some tranquil chosen hour.

"I have loved her for twenty years," said the "King," exasperatingly
calm. "'Jack Harkaway' can take care of himself."

I was not even astonished at the time.

"But something must be done," I cried. "I will go to the commandant at
once and rouse the settlement. Give me a lantern," I called to one of
the negroes, who by this had come up to us, and were standing around in
a terrified group. I waited only for it to be lit, and then, without a
word, dashed wildly into the forest.

"Hadn't you better take some one with you?" I heard the "King" call
after me, but I was too distraught to reply, plunging headforemost
through the tangled darkness--my brain boiling like a cauldron with
anger and a thousand fears, and my heart stung too with wild unreasoning
remorse. After all, it was my doing.

"To think! to think! to think!" I cried aloud--leaving the rest
unspoken.

I meant that it had all come of my insensate pursuit of that filthy
treasure, when all the time the only treasure I coveted was Calypso
herself