The scientist’s lips fluttered, but no words came. A look of abhorrence accentuated the repulsiveness of his face.
With a quick movement The Phantom stepped toward the cot. The doctor wiggled and squirmed, but was unable to move.
“Perhaps, just to convince you that I am in earnest, I had better begin by blinding the left eye now,” The Phantom went on, bending slightly over the trembling man. With two fingers of one hand he pressed back the lids of the doctor’s left eye while holding the bottle in the other. The scientist rolled from side to side, but the firm pressure of The Phantom’s knee against his chest checked his efforts. Finally, as The Phantom was tilting the little bottle against the exposed eye, a great sigh of horror broke from the doctor’s lips.
“Stop!” he cried, almost overcome by terror. “You have won. I will do anything you demand. Only don’t blind me!”
[CHAPTER XVIII—THE FIGURE ON THE STAIRS]
The Phantom could scarcely hold back a cry of exultation as he saw the abject fear written in Doctor Tagala’s face. Knowing how ingeniously Mr. Shei had laid his plans and guarded against every imaginable emergency, he had not been altogether certain that his artful contrivance would succeed. But the scientist’s acute distress was ample proof that Mr. Shei had been outmaneuvered and that The Gray Phantom was master of the situation.
“It appears Mr. Shei has overlooked something, after all,” observed The Phantom in tones that expressed his elation. “Now, doctor, let me warn you that evasions and trickery will only aggravate your position. Where is the antidote?”
Tagala seemed to be making an effort to gather his scattered thoughts. “If I tell you, will you release me at once?” he asked shakily.
“All I promise is to spare your eyesight,” declared The Phantom, still holding the little bottle in dangerous proximity to the scientist’s terror-filled eyes. “You will have to be content with that, and I am really letting you off very easily. Now answer my question.”
The doctor glanced at the bottle, gave an involuntary shudder, and seemed to be trying hard to think clearly.