ow. American sailors--even mutineers--will draw the line at
torture."

His face was hard as hammered iron.

"Don't flatter yourself, Mr. Sedgwick. I'm master here. When I give the
word you will suffer."

I turned my head and my eyes fell upon Henry Fleming. He had turned
white, shaken to the heart. Beyond him was Neidlinger, and the man was
moistening his gray lips with his tongue. The fat cockney looked
troubled. Plainly they had no stomach for the horrible work that lay
before them if I proved resolute.

To fight for treasure was one thing, and I suppose that even in this
they had been led to believe that a mere show of force would be
sufficient; to lend their aid to torture an officer of the ship was
quite another and a more sinister affair.

The Slav in Bothwell had failed to understand the Anglo-Saxon blood with
which he was dealing.

I faced the man with a dry laugh.

"We'll see. Begin, you coward!"

Pinned down to the table as I was, he struck me in the face for that.

"You lose no time in proving my words true," I jeered.

An odd mixture is man. Faith, one might have thought Bothwell impervious
to shame, but at my words the fellow flushed. He could not quite forget
that he had once been a gentleman.

In the way of business he could torture me, wipe me from his path
without a second thought, but on the surface he must live up to the
artificial code his training had imposed upon him.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Sedgwick. Were there time I would give you
satisfaction for that blow in the customary manner. But time presses. I
shall have to ask you instead to accept my apologies. I have the devil
of a temper."

"So I judge."

"It flares like powder. But I must not waste your time in explanations."
From his vest pocket he drew three little cubes of iron. "You still have
time, Mr. Sedgwick. The map!"

I flushed to the roots of my hair.

"Never, you Russian devil!"

He selected the hand pinned down by Fleming, perhaps because he was not
sure that he could trust Gallagher. Between my fingers close to the
roots he slipped the cubes. His fingers fastened over mine and drew the
ends of them together slowly, steadily.

An excruciating pain shot through me. I set my teeth to keep from
screaming and closed my eyes to hide the anguish in them.

"You are at liberty to change your mind--and your answer, Mr. Sedgwick,"
he announced suavely.

"You devil from hell!"

Again I suffered that jagged bolt of pai