“Cease, you young fool, or I will gag you!”
“For my sake, hush!” whispered Mr. Gordon.
“Go on, tell us what you want,” Max said, bitterly.
“Monsieur Gordon, your wealth is well known. Send that young fool there”—pointing to Max—“with one of my men for twenty thousand piasters, and when he returns with it, both shall go free.”
Twenty thousand piasters is equal to about one thousand dollars.
“And if I refuse?” asked Mr. Gordon, nervously.
“He shall lose his tongue; it has already wagged too much,” answered the chief, pointing with his dagger at Max.
“But he cannot get the money.”
“Can’t he? Well, I can; and if you don’t send for it you shall die.”
Merchant Gordon knew not what to do.