Poor Helen! poor—poor Helen!
With fiendish zest the hag set about her horrid work without loss of time.
That very night Helen was gagged to stifle her cries, and was securely bound to the bed, after which Tige amused herself by stripping the victim's feet, and then pulling the nails from her toes with a pincers.
And during the terrible ordeal, the sweat-drops of awful agony rolled down Helen's face, and she writhed and strained, but in vain, to burst the bonds which held her.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
DISAPPOINTED AGAIN.
With ears wide open, and with an expression of intense interest, Shadow remained stretched in the narrow passage in the pile of old junk, listening to the words that fell from the lips of the villains gathered there in the office.
He was all expectancy.
He fully believed that one among the rascals could solve the mystery which he had so long been endeavoring to probe.