Her hands were free, the Swedes having
secured her with a length of ancient slave chain fastened at one
end to an iron collar padlocked about her neck and at the other to
a long stake driven deep into the ground.
Slowly Meriem shrank inch by inch toward the opposite end of
the tent. Malbihn followed her. His hands were extended and his
fingers half-opened--claw-like--to seize her. His lips were parted,
and his breath came quickly, pantingly.
The girl recalled Jenssen's instructions to call him should Malbihn
molest her; but Jenssen had gone into the jungle to hunt. Malbihn
had chosen his time well. Yet she screamed, loud and shrill, once,
twice, a third time, before Malbihn could leap across the tent
and throttle her alarming cries with his brute fingers. Then she
fought him, as any jungle she might fight, with tooth and nail. The
man found her no easy prey. In that slender, young body, beneath
the rounded curves and the fine, soft skin, lay the muscles of
a young lioness. But Malbihn was no weakling. His character and
appearance were brutal, nor did they belie his brawn.
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