In his hand there was a huge stone with which he had intended to dash his victim from his slender perch.
But second thought restrained him.
“I was about to dash you from that hold!” he hissed, “but that would be only a merciful ending of your agonies. I shall leave you to hang there until your strength gives out and you are obliged to fall of your own accord. May your thoughts be pleasant and your end a happy one.”
“Villain!” groaned Harding with awful terror. “You do not mean that!”
“Don’t I?”
“You cannot be so inhuman!”
“Ha! you do not know me. Stay there and think of me with the Incas’ treasure on my way to New York to claim Mabel Dane. Ha, ha, ha!”
“Wretch! Monster!” screamed Harding in an insane manner. “You will never do that. No, no, no! I appeal to your sense of right and humanity. Be just!”
But his words were wasted, spent upon empty air.
Vane had disappeared, gliding away noiselessly among the mountain crags.