Yet with closed eyes, Kent King could see those red lips, white teeth, and glaring eyes above his face. Brave man though he was, the sweat stood in beads upon his forehead, and he became strangely nervous, which increased until human nature could bear no more, and he shrieked forth: “Kate! Kate! For the love of God, kill me and end this misery.” At this cry the huge dog sprang upon the prisoner, his teeth ready to bury themselves in the man’s throat, while he growled savagely. A quick tread followed. Panther Kate entered the room and asked quietly: “Well, sir, did you call?” “Great God! Have you no heart, woman? Do you not see this monster upon me, and that I am going mad?” he groaned. “Ha! ha! ha! Then you can be made to feel, Kenton Kingsland? I believed you callous to every emotion, though time was when you professed feelings such as other people possess. I am happy now, sir, for I gaze on you writhing in mortal anguish.” Her voice was hard, her eyes burning, and her bosom heaved convulsively, as though the inmost depths of her being were stirred. “Kate, I have wronged you bitterly; more than human being can forgive, yet I beg you to remove this devilish beast from my breast or I will go mad,” he said pleadingly. Something in his tone told her that he spoke the truth, and she called to the dog. It at once obeyed her, and, walking to the corner, lay down. “God bless you, Kate, for that act,” said the prisoner. “If you desire my death, kill me, but do not torture me beyond human endurance again.” “I have sought you to kill you, Kenton.” “Then do so: life has no charm for me now, and I have often sought death, but it would not come to me.” “You speak falsely, Kenton, for you have ever clung to life with strange tenacity.” “Once I did; but, Kate, since--since----” “I am listening, sir.” “Since that night that--that----” “Let me complete your sentence; since the night you saw me raise to my lips the fatal drug you had prepared for me, you have been haunted by a phantom.” “Yes, Kate, and bitterly have I been punished for that crime. I was mad then, for I knew that you loved me, and I loved you more than all else in the world; but I owed large gambling and others debts, and had no money to pay them with. I had an opportunity to marry an heiress, who was to turn over into my keeping her vast wealth. “My marriage to you was a secret one, and none knew of it, and, driven to desperation by my debts, I one night prepared two glasses with poison, intending that you should drink the one and I the other, and we would die together. “Coward that I was, I saw you drink the fatal draft, though I touched not my lips to mine; and before I could summon aid you were, as I believed, dead. Oh, Kate! No one knows my misery then. In terror I fled and sought a refuge amid wild scenes and wilder men.” “Have you told me all the truth, Kenton Kingsland?” she asked in a low, stern tone. As if determined to hide no atom of his guilt, he continued: