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They had stripped Standish to the waist, and he walked forith

fir-post and the

furnace, and the sinister figure beside them with a cat-o'-nine-tails

in his hand, he halted suddenly with an involuntary gasp, and his face

went ashen

"Cojuelo, you--you can'tto be such a fiend as

to torture me!" he burst out breathlessly "I haven't done you any

harm Look here, I'll--I'll double the ransom if you'll let me off

I'll make it twenty thousand pounds"

"Not for fifty thousand pounds would I forego ure "Yet you have but to confess that you did agree to go

away and leave the Señorita Rostrevor here, well knoould

happen to her, you have only to tell her now that you renounce her to

o unharmed"

"Don't, Tony, don't!" cried Myra "Be brave, dear!"

Standish, who had not previously noticed her, jerked round his head at

the sound of her voice

"Myra, for God's sake intercede for uards seized hi him to spare me!"

"Oh, Tony, don't fail me!" cried Myra, shamed by his display of terror