"Oh!" cried Rachel, frantically. "Let me down! let me down! you wicked, wicked girl!"
Still holding the reins with one hand, Tera seized Rachel's wrist with the other, and held her to her seat. "I will not let you," she said fiercely; "if you try to go, I will tell Tolai to kill you. Be quiet! Listen! I tell you this to save your Herbert. But I do not want to be shut up in prison. Now Jack has the money, he will sail away. I go also, and when I am away, you can tell the truth."
"Oh!" said Tera, who had lately learned the value of written statements, "I will write out all I tell you, and sign it Bithiah, Tera, what you will. Then I sail away, and no one will shut me up. Now you can go"--she pulled up the horse with a jerk--"but do not speak yet. If you do, I will say you--you will be sorry--that's all. Wait till I give you the paper and sail away with my dear Jack, You hear?"
"Yes, yes," said Rachel, her teeth chattering with fright at this exhibition of Tera's savagery. "I will say nothing--not a word!"
"Good! You can go, then. I drive on to Grimleigh, and go on board the schooner, where I shall be safe. I shall not return, and the trap I will leave to some one to take back."
Rachel, trembling violently, scrambled down as best she could. In her terror she believed that Tera might order Tolai to kill her. It was a strange experience to be at the mercy of two bloodthirsty savages on a quiet English road. Without a word she picked up her skirts and ran back, only anxious to get safely home. Tera burst into a jeering laugh at her manifest cowardice, then drove on at full speed to Grimleigh. Not until she was safe on board the schooner, with Jack beside her, would she feel secure. The laws in England were scarcely so lax as those in Koiau, and she could not presume on her rank as a chief's daughter in this land of the haolis (whites). After all, Tera had no reason to jeer at Rachel. In a different way she was just as great a coward. She did not fear death in itself, but she dreaded lest anything should part her from Jack.
On arriving at the jetty, Tera carried out the programme which she had explained to Rachel. The _Dayspring_ was anchored some distance out stream, so she hired a boat, and made Tolai, who was a brawny Polynesian Samson, carry the precious box of gold to it. Then she handed over the horse and trap to a fisherman she knew, and gave him half-a-crown to take it round to the Anchor Hotel, whence a stable-hand could drive it back to Bethdagon. In making these arrangements Tera displayed considerable mother-wit. She was quick in looking after her own interests.