s no haste about this ruffian. He drew a sheath knife and went
in search of a knotted vine, returning with it, still plying his blade
and paring off the small branches attached to it. Then he took his post
behind his prisoner.

"Raise him, and stand well aside," he cried, with a gay laugh. "Now we
will see how long it takes us to persuade him."

Could the prisoner have freed his hands at that moment and managed to
reach his tormentor, he would have taken such a grip of his throat that
James Langdon's villainy would have been summarily ended for all time.
Dick felt the cruel sting of the lashes as they fell upon his back,
across his face, and on his legs and shoulders. But his indignation and
rage at such cowardly and dastardly treatment helped to ease the pain.
He clenched his fingers, closed his lips firmly, and when he could fixed
his gaze upon the ruffian who belaboured him. Then, gradually, as the
man tired and his blows lost power, and as the circulation returned to
the prisoner's legs, he gained sufficient strength to stand, and then to
hobble.

"See what a good healer I am," laughed the half-caste. "Others would
have rubbed his legs and feet. I use my whip to his back, and the sulky
dog is roused. He finds that it will be as well to walk and do as he is
bid."

"And he will find it in him to punish such an act when the time comes,"
gasped Dick. "I do not threaten, James Langdon, thief and ruffian. I
give you due warning. When the time comes, I will shoot you as if you
were a wild beast, without notice and without mercy. Vermin such as you
are do not deserve ordinary treatment."

For a few seconds the half-caste was taken aback, for at heart he was an
arrant coward, and the mere mention of what might happen to him was
sufficient to shake his nerve. But he had the game in his own hands
now, he flattered himself. This time the youth at whose door he laid
all his troubles, the need which drove him to live this life in the
jungle, the fever which racked him, and a hundred other evils, was
securely bound, a prisoner, from whom no danger was to be apprehended.
His words were harmless. He was as helpless as a new-born babe.

"When the time comes I shall be prepared," he said, with a laugh which
he vainly endeavoured to make easy and light. "For the present we will
advance, and leave threats and chatter till later. Advance, and beat
the dog if he shows signs of lagging."

Had the Ashanti warriors w