cy's sake give me some food; I'm starving."

"Not till you obey me."

"Have you no pity left in you?"

"I'm simply determined to carry my point."

"This is horrible--inhuman!"

"Oh, I know very well it's unpleasant," testily answered Mason, "but
you might have spared yourself all the suffering you have been
undergoing for the past three days had you done as I asked. You know
me, Dalton. I've started a desperate game to get your money, and I've
been baffled at every turn by those accursed Bradys. This is my last
resource to raise money enough to get out of the country, and, by
Heavens, I'll win, or you'll die!"

The broker gazed steadily at him a moment.

In the hard, cruel expression of Mason's eyes he read his doom, and he
was so overcome with absolute misery of mind and body that he leaned
against the rock and cried like a child. All hope had left him.

He was broken down in body and spirit.

A cold, cynical smile hovered over Mason's face.

He was not moved by the signs of weakness his prisoner showed. On the
contrary, he gloated over it.

This was the surest indication to him that Dalton was upon the verge of
collapse, and intended to give in.

He waited for his victim to get over the first paroxysm of grief, and
watched him as closely as a cat watches a mouse.

Finally he asked in sharp, metallic tones:

"Well, which shall it be--obey me, and sign a check, or remain chained
here like a wild beast, and perish of starvation?"

For a moment there was a deep silence.

Slowly the prisoner removed his trembling hands from his wan, pinched
face, and said in reproachful tones:

"I can't stand this any longer."

"Then you will sign the check?" eagerly asked Mason.

"Yes. And you will then give me my liberty?"

"The moment you affix your signature to this check, we will give you
food. And the moment I get the money, you will get your liberty."

"Give me the check."

Mason drew the pen and paper from his pocket, eagerly strode over to
the poor wretch, and held them out to him.

But instead of taking the pen, Dalton gave one mighty leap, clutched
the wretch by the throat with both hands, and, choking the villain till
he grew black in the face, he yelled frantically:

"I've got you at last, you dog; and by the eternal, I'll kill you, if
it's the last thing I do on earth! Die, confound you, die! And this is
the vengeance I've been craving all through the moments of torture
you've put me to in the p