“Dog!”
For a moment the man thought he was as good as dead. Steve’s eyes blazed like coals of fire, and he looked like a lion about to spring. The man began to protest his innocence, swearing with a hundred oaths that he had nothing to do with it; that it was all Leech’s doings—his orders and other men’s work. He himself had tried to prevent it.
Steve cut him short.
“Liar, save yourself the trouble. What are their names? Where are they?”
“I don’t know. They’ve gone, I don’t know where. They went away this mornin’ before light.”
“Get the key and unlock that chain.”
The man swore that he did not have it—the men had taken it with them.
Steve reflected a moment. He had no time to lose.
“Oh, Steve! never mind me,” broke in Rupert, his self-possession recovered. “Go—I’m not worth saving. Oh, Steve! if you only knew! I have done you an irreparable injury. I don’t mind myself, but——” His voice failed him and his words ended in a sob. “I’m not crying because I’m here or am afraid,” he said, presently. “But if you only knew——”