face was looking into his.

"Now, lad, once more: will you speak, or will you not? It is the
last time I shall ask you."

"I will tell you nothing," answered Paul, raising his head and
looking at his old enemy with a contempt and lofty scorn which
seemed to sting the man to greater fury.

"You will not! very good. You will be glad enough to speak before I
have done with you. I have many old scores to settle with you yet,
and so has the Chief when he comes back; but the first thing is to
wring from you where the prince is hiding himself.

"Strip off his fine riding dress and under tunic, lads (it is a
pity to spoil good clothes that may be useful to our own brave
fellows), and string him up to that beam.

"Get out your hide whips, Peter and Joe, and lay it on well till I
tell you to stop."

With a brutal laugh, as if it were all some excellent joke, the men
threw themselves upon Paul, and proceeded to carry out the
instructions of their leader, who seated himself with a smile of
triumph where he could enjoy the spectacle of the suffering he
intended to inflict. Paul's upper garments were quickly removed,
and his hands and feet tightly bound with leather thongs. An
upright and a crossway beam, supporting the roof of the cave,
formed an excellent substitute for the whipping post not uncommon
in those days upon a village green; and Paul, with a mute prayer
for help and courage, nerved himself to meet the ordeal he was
about to undergo, praying, above all things, that he might not in
his agony betray the prince to these relentless enemies.

The thick cow-hide whips whistled through the air and descended on
his bare, quivering shoulders, and he nearly bit his lips through
to restrain the cry that the infliction almost drew from him. But
he was resolved that his foe should not have the satisfaction of
extorting from him any outward sign of suffering save the
convulsive writhings which no effort of his own could restrain. How
many times the cruel whips whistled through the air and descended
on his back, he never knew--it seemed like an eternity to him; but
at last he heard a voice say:

"Hold, men!

"Dowsett, you will kill him before the Chief sees him, and that he
will not thank you for. He is a fine fellow, and I won't stand by
and see him killed outright. Take him down and lock him up safely
till the Chief returns. He will say what is to be done with him
next. It is not for us to take law into our own hands bey