And if all were well, and he escaped that danger, were there not worse behind?
Think of him, a Christian man, the husband of a savage woman who worshipped a stone image with a lion's head, bound to her and her tribe, a state prisoner, trebly guarded, whom, so far as I could see, there would be no hope of rescuing.

It was awful.

Then there were other complications.

If the plan succeeded and the idol was destroyed, my own belief was that the Fung must thereby be exasperated.
Evidently they knew some road into this stronghold.

It would be used.
They would pour their thousands up it, a general massacre would follow, of which, justly, we should be the first victims.
I reached the chamber where Oliver sat brooding alone, for Japhet was patrolling the line.
"I am not happy about Maqueda, Doctor," he said to me.