“I’ll loosen those ropes, so you can copy this letter, if you’ll promise not to attack me,” went on Skeel.
“I’ll promise nothing!” exclaimed Tom, defiantly.
“All right. Then I’ll have to call in my helpers to stand by,” grimly went on the former instructor. “They’ll take care of you if you cut up rough.”
He went to the door, and called out:
“Murker—Whalen! Come in. We may need you,” he added significantly.
Tom steeled himself for what was to come.
“Take off those ropes,” went on the professor, when his two mean men had come in. “Then, if he starts a row—let him have it!”
The words were coarse and rough, and the man’s manner and tone even more so.
“Are we to take off these ropes?” asked Murker.