"I can't stand this any longer."
"Then you will sign the check?" eagerly asked Mason.
"Yes. And you will then give me my liberty?"
"The moment you affix your signature to this check, we will give you food. And the moment I get the money, you will get your liberty."
"Give me the check."
Mason drew the pen and paper from his pocket, eagerly strode over to the poor wretch, and held them out to him.
But instead of taking the pen, Dalton gave one mighty leap, clutched the wretch by the throat with both hands, and, choking the villain till he grew black in the face, he yelled frantically:
"I've got you at last, you dog; and by the eternal, I'll kill you, if it's the last thing I do on earth! Die, confound you, die! And this is the vengeance I've been craving all through the moments of torture you've put me to in the past!"
He hurled Mason upon the floor, pinioned him to the ground, with a knee on his chest, and Sim, with an oath, rushed to his master's aid.
CHAPTER XVI.