This will drive him desperate; and if he can capture you and extort your secret, he will think he can use it to effect his purpose, or at least to ensure his escape.

He may think open rebellion, desperate as it is, safer than waiting for the first blow to come from the Zinta or from the Palace." My resolve was speedily taken.

At the same moment came the necessity for escape, and the opportunity and excuse.

I sought out the writer of the first message, who entirely concurred with me in the propriety of the step I was about to take; only recommending me to apply personally for a passport from the Campta, such as would override any attempt to detain me even by legal warrant.

He undertook to care for those I left behind; to release and provide for Eive, and to see, in case I should not return, that full justice was done to the interests of the others, as well as to their claim to release from contracts which my departure from their world ought, like death itself, to cancel.