“They care nothing for me, or my neck,” thought Patsy. “Like the she devils of ancient Rome, once having tasted blood, they thirst for more.”
As he was hurried into the basement by Conley, he saw that the sliding door had been opened and that Badger was again lighting the lantern.
This no sooner was done than the dastardly knave, blind to all except the impulses of his utter desperation, quickly threw a rope over a beam near the ceiling, then knotted a slip-noose around Patsy’s neck.
Patsy stood directly under the beam, as cool as if he was only about to be weighed.
“Get hold of that rope, you two!” cried Badger fiercely.
Conley and Hyde sprang to the lax strip of line.
The two women, bred though they were to evil, drew back with awed white faces and dilated eyes.
“Now, youngster, what do you say?” thundered Badger, confronting Patsy with face livid and eyes ablaze.
Patsy met him eye to eye.
“Only what I’ve said already,” he curtly replied.