Lie to me about it, and I am going to kill you where you sit, as I would a mad dog.

You know me, Slavin--now speak!" So intensely still was it, Hampton could distinguish the faint ticking of the watch in his pocket, the hiss of the breath between the giant's clinched teeth.

Twice the fellow tried to utter something, his lips shaking as with the palsy, his ashen face the picture of terror.

No wretch dragged shrieking to the scaffold could have formed a more pitiful sight, but there was no mercy in the eyes of the man watching him.
"Speak, you cringing hound!" Slavin gripped his great hands together convulsively, his throat swelling beneath its red beard.

He knew there was no way of escape.
"I--I had to do it! My God, Captain, I had to do it!" "Why ?" "I had to, I tell you.