The moan of agony was wrung from Red’s lips, as Cho-San threw his weight on the pulley rope. The stocky lieutenant now hung by his thumbs from the wire loop which had cut through skin and tissue.
Only Lotus’ warning nudge kept Don from throwing himself then and there upon the slant-eyed devil who was leaning on that rope. With a supreme effort he controlled himself.
Suzette, he recalled, had mentioned a plan of rescue which Lotus would attempt when the chance came. Until then he must play the game!
Lotus, he noticed, had moved over to the nearest wall. She leaned against it in a pathetic huddle, her hands covering her face. So convincing was her pose of despair that Don wondered if it were acting at all.
Red anger again clouded his brain. His hand crept to the lapel of his dinner jacket within quick reach of the automatic beneath his armpit.
“I advise you to keep your hand away from your weapon, my friend!” came Cho-San’s ugly growl. “Back there in the shadows stands one of my personal bodyguards, with a Thompson submachine gun aimed at your midriff. At the first signal from me—he will make a bloody rag of your shirt front. Ah-ha! You see him now?”
Slowly Don’s narrowed gaze made out the shadowy figure behind an unlighted archway. His hand lifted to cover a well-faked yawn.
“Of course I see him!” he murmured lazily. “But why all the dramatics, Cho-San? So far the fun you promised has been frightfully tiresome. I’ve heard men groaning in pain before in my life, you know. Really, this isn’t even interesting....”
“It will be, my dear Borg-Winslow!” spat the Chinese. “It will be most interesting when Lieutenant Pennington starts to tell us—between groans—just which your name really is! And if this simple thumb-stretcher doesn’t work, I have a new electrical machine which tears the brain apart, bit by bit. Perhaps you would like me to give you a taste of that, when I am finished with your friend?”
With a ghastly chuckle, Cho-San turned back to his work. The pulley rope tightened. From Red’s anguished throat burst another pitiful moan.