Yes, and you may see
her, too.' Then Ahpilus stepped off behind some thick, stunted bushes of
a variety of evergreen, whence, in a moment, he returned, leading by the
wrist Lilama. 'Great Jove above! Girl, do you see your lover over there?
You have no love for me--you never had; but never again in time or in
eternity shall I lie with burning brain, thinking of those snowy arms
about the stranger's neck--aye, as once I saw them in the palace
grounds. Curse you all, and may you all alike be d----d. Why should a
stranger come through ten thousand perils to add to all my untold
agonies.' Here for a moment his voice softened, almost to a gentle
whisper. 'Ah, Lilama, once, only once, you shall, of your own free will,
clasp those arms around me--if not in love, then in terror. A moment
more, and over this abyss together we shall go!' With terror in his
eyes, Pym glanced at Peters; and even the phlegmatic Peters was
startled. 'Yes, for one moment in each other's arms; and then for me,
the everlasting darkness of Tartarus, or of endless oblivion.'
"As he talked, he had dropped the wrist of Lilama, and she crouched upon
the ground with her hands before her face, whilst Ahpilus continued to
rave, and to pace from the chasm's edge away and back again, in maniac
strides, until he had almost beaten where he paced a pathway.
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