He
had realized, of course, how bad a plight was theirs but somehow
it had seemed to affect him only: it did not seem possible that
anyone could harm this sweet and beautiful girl.
And that she should have to be destroyed--destroyed by him! It
was too hideous: it was unbelievable, unthinkable! If he had been
filled with apprehension before, he was doubly perturbed now.
"I don't believe I could do it, Bertha," he said.
"Not even to save me from something worse?" she asked.
He shook his head dismally. "I could never do it," he replied.
The street that they were following suddenly opened upon a wide
avenue, and before them spread a broad and beautiful lagoon, the
quiet surface of which mirrored the clear cerulean of the sky. Here
the aspect of all their surroundings changed. The buildings were
higher and much more pretentious in design and ornamentation.
The street itself was paved in mosaics of barbaric but stunningly
beautiful design. In the ornamentation of the buildings there was
considerable color and a great deal of what appeared to be gold
leaf. In all the decorations there was utilized in various ways the
conventional figure of the parrot, and, to a lesser extent, that
of the lion and the monkey.
Their captors led them along the pavement beside the lagoon for a
short distance and then through an arched doorway into one of the
buildings facing the avenue.
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