John struggles no longer, for he realizes that he is safer out of her sight than in it.
They take him through a door-way and the last he hears from the beautiful tigress is her taunting cry of:
"We will break this proud spirit of yours, John Craig—what you scorn now you will beg for after awhile, when it is too late!"
He wonders whether this is a prophecy.
The men hurry him along a narrow hall, for many of these Maltese houses are built in a queer way, nor do they treat him with consideration, but rather the contrary.
When he ventures to protest, the man who opened the door orders silence and enforces it with a cowardly blow from his fist.
John looks him straight in the eye and says:
"You coward! I will remember that," at which the man turns his head away and swears under his breath.
Presently they halt in front of a door, which the leader unlocks. At a word from him the young American is pushed inside.
John, receiving such an impetus, staggers and throws out his hands for support, but failing to find anything of this kind, pitches over, just as the door slams shut.