throw it at him, and divining that
the stimulant might be of assistance to her in the trying crisis in
which she found herself, the girl lifted the cup to her lips, bowed to
him, and swallowed a portion of the contents.

"Give it back to me!" he shouted. "You have tasted it, I drain it. Now
the lesson. Say after me, 'Harry Morgan'----"

"Harry Morgan," gasped the girl.

"'I love thee.'"

With a swift inward prayer she uttered the lying words.

"You have learned well, and art an apt pupil indeed," he cried, leering
upon her in approbation and lustful desire--- his very gaze was
pollution to her. "D'ye know there are few women who can resist me when
I try to be agreeable? Harry Morgan's way!" he laughed again. "There be
some that I have won and many I have forced. None like you. So you love
me? Scuttle me, I thought so. Ben Hornigold was right. Woo a woman, let
her be clipped willingly in arms--yet there's a pleasure in breaking in
the jades, after all. Still, I'm glad that you are in a better mood and
have forgot that cursed Spaniard rotting in the dungeons below, in favor
of a better man, Harry--no, I'll say, Sir Henry--Morgan--on this
occasion, at your service," he cried, rising again and bowing to her as
before.

She looked desperately at the clock. The hour was close at hand. So
great was the strain under which she was laboring that she felt she
could not continue five minutes longer. Would Alvarado never come? Would
anybody come? She sat motionless and white as marble, while the
chieftain stared at her in the pauses of his monologue.

"Now, madam, since you have spoke the words perhaps you will further
wipe out the recollection of this caress--" he pointed to his cheek
again. "Curse me!" he cried in sudden heat, "you are the only human
being that ever struck Harry Morgan on the face and lived to see the
mark. I'd thought to wait until to-morrow and fetch some starveling
priest to play his mummery, but why do so? We are alone here--together.
There is none to disturb us. Black Dog watches. You love me, do you
not?"

"I--I--" she gasped out, brokenly praying for strength, and fighting for
time.

"You said it once, that's enough. Come, lady, let's have happiness while
we may. Seal the bargain and kiss away the blows."

He came around the table and approached her. Notwithstanding the
quantity of liquor he had taken he was physically master of himself, she
noticed with a sinking heart. As he drew near, she s