d. Speak, or you shall
be made to find your tongue!"

"I will speak as much as you like," answered Tom, with haughty
disdain in his tone, though his flesh crept at the sight of the men
knotting the ends of rope in their hands; "but I am charged with no
message. I know nothing of what you would wish to know. You can
flog till you are weary, but you can't get out of me what I do not
know. That at least is one satisfaction."

Montacute waved his hand. The next moment the ropes descended upon
Tom's bare back. He set his teeth, and made no cry, though the
blood came surging to his head, and the room seemed to swim in
blood. Again and again they descended; but the keen pain awoke
within Tom that ferocity of strength which comes to men in their
extremity, so that, like Samson, they can turn the tables upon
their foes.

The hut was but a rude affair, somewhat loosely put together. The
beam to which Tom's arms had been bound was not too strongly
jointed to its fellow.

A sudden madness seemed to come upon this man of thews and sinews.
He gave a sudden bound and wrench; he felt the beam give, and
redoubled his efforts; the next moment the whole rafter came bodily
down upon their heads. Tom ducked, and escaped its fall; but it
pinned one of his foes to the ground, and his own hands were
immediately free.

With a bound like that of a tiger, and a roar like that of a
wounded lion, he sprang, or rather flew, at Montacute, flung him
over backwards upon the floor, and pinned him by the throat,
uttering all the while a savage sort of growling sound, like a wild
beast in its fury.

The light was thrown over in this strange melee; the room was
plunged in darkness. The two men upon the floor lay struggling
together in a terrible silence, only broken by Tom's fierce
snarlings, that seemed scarce human. So terrified were the
remaining two men, that they could do nothing for the assistance of
their master; indeed, they hardly knew what was happening to him.
They set up a shouting for aid, half afraid to stir lest the whole
house should come falling about their ears.

There were steps in the room below. Footsteps mounted the stairs.
The door was thrown open, a shaft of light streamed in, and a calm,
full voice demanded in the French tongue:

"What, in the name of all the saints, is this?"

"Holy father, he is murdering our master!" suddenly cried one of
the men, recovering from his stupor of terror, and seeing now how
Tom's grea