The whip dropped from “Legree’s” hand. It struck the floor heavily, but the man caught it up in a twinkling, reversing it.
Then, with the loaded butt, he struck “Uncle Tom” a savage blow on the head.
The stricken man straightened out, quivering in every limb.
With the expression of a fiend on his face, “Legree” lifted the heavy whip again to bring the butt down upon the man’s head. It seemed to be his purpose to smash the skull of the actor he hated.
As one man, the audience rose and stood, uttering a cry of horror, for everyone seemed to realize that this was not acting.
It was murder!
“Stop!”
The word shot like a bullet from the lips of a handsome youth who went flying over the rail of the right-hand proscenium box and alighted on the stage.
“Drop it!”
Frank Merriwell dashed at the murderous actor, caught the whip, tore it from his hand, flung it aside.