The fellow's eyes saw the severed rope on the floor, and he smiled, kicking the strands aside contemptuously.
"Smart enough for that, were you ?" he asked.

"Well, I would have taken them off myself, if I had thought about it.

How did you manage?
Oh, I see; rather a bright trick, old man.

Feeling pretty fit, are you ?" West did not answer at once; this fellow had come with an object in mind, and his only desire was to baffle him.

It was to be a contest of wits, and helpless as the prisoner was physically, he had no intention of playing into the other's hands.
"I might be, if I knew what all this meant," he said at last.