"What if they do? Niggers don't count in this world."
"I think you are a monster, Dr. Mackey!" exclaimed our hero, in horror. "To kill a negro is as much murder as to kill anyone else."
"I won't discuss the subject. The question is, will you go along peacefully with me?"
"I will not. You have no right to abduct me in this fashion."
"I have a right to do as I please with my own son."
"Again I say I am not your son. Do you know what I think? I think you are nothing but a swindler—a rascal who wishes to use me as a tool, in order to get hold of some fortune coming to me or to somebody else."
Dr. Mackey glared at Jack for a moment, then leaped forward and struck our hero a cruel blow in the face.
"That for your impudence!" he cried wrathfully. "After this, keep a civil tongue in your head."
The blow made Jack's blood boil, but he was helpless to resent it. "You are a coward, to hit me when I am tied like this," he said. "But some day, Dr. Mackey, I may be able to square accounts, and then you had better beware."
One of the guerrillas now came forward to consult with the surgeon, and Jack was left with the other prisoners, to meditate over what had been said and done.