the act. But if she would be his, he would share the treasure with her,
and they could live in luxury in the African forests. But if she
refused, he would tell his master, who would flog and torture her and
then give her to the police, who would kill her.




CHAPTER XIV--BATTLE RENEWED


The consequences of that meeting in the dusk of Diana's Grove were acute
and far-reaching, and not only to the two engaged in it. From Oolanga,
this might have been expected by anyone who knew the character of the
tropical African savage. To such, there are two passions that are
inexhaustible and insatiable--vanity and that which they are pleased to
call love. Oolanga left the Grove with an absorbing hatred in his heart.
His lust and greed were afire, while his vanity had been wounded to the
core. Lady Arabella's icy nature was not so deeply stirred, though she
was in a seething passion. More than ever she was set upon bringing
Edgar Caswall to her feet. The obstacles she had encountered, the
insults she had endured, were only as fuel to the purpose of revenge
which consumed her.

As she sought her own rooms in Diana's Grove, she went over the whole
subject again and again, always finding in the face of Lilla Watford a
key to a problem which puzzled her--the problem of a way to turn
Caswall's powers--his very existence--to aid her purpose.

When in her boudoir, she wrote a note, taking so much trouble over it