came. But when he came, he brought his true character with him. I could
not have believed that any human being could be so callous, so brutal,
so coldly indifferent to another's sufferings. I thought as I listened
to him of all I had heard about that ancestor of his who had killed a
man in cold blood in the old house at the bank--and I knew that Joseph
Chestermarke would kill me with no more compunction, and no less, than
he would show in crushing a beetle that crossed his path.

"His cruelty came out in his frankness. He told me plainly that he had
me in his power. Nobody knew where I was--nobody could get to know. His
uncle knew nothing of the Hollis affair--no one knew. No one would be
told. His uncle, moreover, believed I had run away with convertible
securities and Lady Ellersdeane's jewels--he, Joseph, would take care
that he and everybody should continue to think so. And then he told me
cynically that he had helped himself to the missing securities and to
the jewels as well--the event of Saturday night, he said, had just given
him the chance he wanted, and in a few days he would be out of this
country and in another, where his great talent as a chemist and an
inventor would be valued and put to grand use. But he was not going
empty-handed, not he!--he was going with as much as ever he could rake
together.

"And it was on that first occasion that he told me what he wanted of me.
You know, Neale, that I am trustee for two or three families in this
town. Joseph knew that I held certain securities--deposited in a private
safe of mine at the bank--which could be converted into cash in, say,
London, at an hour's notice. He had already helped himself to them, and
had prepared a document which only needed my signature to enable him to
deal with them. That signature would have put nearly a quarter of a
million into his pocket.

"He used every endeavour to make me sign the paper which he brought. He
said that if I would sign, he would leave an ample supply of the best
food and drink within my reach, and that I should be released within
thirty-six hours, by which time he would be out of England. When I
steadily refused he had recourse to cruelty. Twice he beat me severely
with a dog-whip; another time he assaulted me with hands and feet, like
a madman. And then, when he found physical violence was no good, he told
me he would slowly starve me to death. But he was doing that all along.
The first three days I had nothing bu