Joh Fredersen had stopped still, his back to the room. A quiver ran down his back, running along the hanging arms to the clenched fists.
“You should have your skull smashed in,” said Joh Fredersen, very softly.... “You should have your skull smashed in ... that is, if it did not contain so valuable a brain....”
“You can do no more to me than you have done,” said the far-off voice.
Joh Fredersen was silent.
“Which do you think,” continued the voice, “to be more painful: to smash in the skull, or to tear the heart out of the body?”
Joh Fredersen was silent.
“Are your wits frozen, that you don’t answer, Joh Fredersen?”
“A brain like yours should be able to forget,” said the man standing at the door, staring at Solomon’s seal.
The soft, far-off voice laughed.
“Forget? I have twice in my life forgotten something.... Once that Aetro-oil and quick-silver have an idiosyncrasy as regards each other; that cost me my arm. Secondly that Hel was a woman and you a man; that cost me my heart. The third time, I am afraid, it will cost me my head. I shall never again forget anything, Joh Fredersen.”