“It will do you no good to lie! You have betrayed me, and you must die!”
“I was speaking to Miss Bellwood when you pounced upon me.”
“Yes; you had told her that I thought myself the strongest man in the world. Thought! Ha, ha, ha! Why, I know! You were like a child in my hands! Did you see how weak and helpless you were? Yet I’ll wager that you think you are strong. You thought you were strong when you fought with Skelding a while ago.”
“You know of that?”
“Oh, yes; I know of it. I have been watching you for a long time, as something told me you would betray me. You thought you were strong because you could conquer him. Bah! I could have stepped in and handled you both without an effort. I could have toyed with you. It would have given me pleasure to do so, but I did not care to betray my great strength to those others who were present. That was why I stood off and waited.”
So this maniac had been following him round all the evening? The thought was hardly agreeable.
“Something told me you would give away my secret,” went on the mad doctor, his eyes dancing. “That was why I clung so close to you. When I hear that voice whispering something in my ear, I know it speaks the truth. It whispered over and over: ‘He is a traitor! He is a traitor!’ But you lied to her!”
“How?”
“You told her that I am mad. Poor fool! Why should you think anything so ridiculous? You did it because you were jealous. I can read you. You did not wish the world to ever know that I am the strongest man alive. Why, you idiot! did you think they could take me and confine me in an asylum? Why, you must have known that I can bend and break the strongest iron bars! You must have known that I could pull the walls down. There are no walls strong enough to hold me.”