"Now for our business," he presently observed. "You've probably come to some decision, Pinsent. I wait to hear it."
"Well," I said, "the thing is in a nutshell. You've promised me nothing but a choice of deaths. I may be a fool, but I like life so well that I prefer a lingering sort to any other, however painless."
"You're a fool," he answered shortly, and pouted out his loose thick lips beyond his beard, so that he seemed to have the snout of a hairy pig. "You don't know what a pleasure it will be to me to torture you," he continued. "I'll make you suffer like the damned before you die."
"I don't doubt your will; it's your ability which is in question," I said, as coolly as I was able. "You may think you have me laid here very nicely by the heels, Dr. Belleville, and so you have in seeming. But you're not the only man who has a knowledge of the old magic arts of ancient Egypt. I tell you to your face that I possess a charm no whit less potent than the one you found the secret of in yonder tomb. And if you force me to use it, why, I shall use it. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it."
He stood up at once, greatly surprised, much incredulous, but also a little troubled and dubious, as I could see.
"You think you can bluff me?" he snarled. But I had bluffed him. I could read it in his eyes.
I answered him with nothing but a smile.
He assumed a sneer. His eyes glinted. He put his hand in his pocket and produced a revolver. He cocked the weapon and put it to my temple.
"Well, you've challenged me," he jeered. "In just one minute I'll blow your brains out. Your charm is now in question!"