I ground my teeth. "Bah!" I snarled, "you doubt her word, or you'd not have brought her here. I see your game, you wish to make her own her theft by witnessing my torture. But you will fail, you fool. Do you forget that she betrayed me? She'll laugh to hear my screams!" Marion spoke for the first time. "Sir Charles," she began, in low vibrating tones, "this man looks very ill. What have you done with him, and what is the matter with his hand?" "He will tell you," said the surgeon curtly. I looked up at her for the first time. Her eyes were dilated, and full of passionate questioning. "You pretty actress!" I sneered, "you know nothing, oh, of course, you know nothing!" "Miss Le Mar knows nothing, Hume," said Sir Charles, in tones of ice. "But it is time she knew. You will tell her, or shall I?" "You," I muttered. I was a little dazed. Marion had not thought to have me tortured then. I had to readjust my mind, concerning her. Sir Charles nodded, and the girl and he gazed into each other's eyes. "Tell me!" she cried. "His fingers have been pierced with frozen probes between the nail and quick!" It seemed to me that an hour passed before their glances parted. But at last Marion uttered a little gasping sigh and slowly turned to me. Her face was very pale. "How you must loathe me!" she muttered. "Yes!" I answered simply. "But you will better understand how much, if you will trouble to explore the room I lately occupied!" "Come!" said Sir Charles, at once, and he strode across the cellar. They were not absent long, yet when they returned Marion had some colour in her face. It seemed they had been talking, but I heard the end of their discourse. "You should have known it, child," Sir Charles was saying. "I did not use bald words, because I trusted your intelligence. 'A long voyage' was the term I used. It bore one application only in my mind. You must perceive how utterly impossible it is that he should live. Why, if we kept him prisoner, he might escape--ten, twenty years hence even, and yet he still could ruin us!" "But you spoke also of an island?" "An island of dreams, Marion!" he replied impatiently. "Come, come, we waste time. You must be sensible!" She bowed her head before him and appeared to think. "Come, come," he said again, still more impatiently. "Wait!" she replied. "I begin to understand." "Well!" "Mr. Hume spoke truly, monsieur, you doubted my word, and that is why you brought me here. You think it possible that I have the jewels. Is it not so?" "Yes to all your questions!" "And unless M. Hume confesses that he lied about the packet, I must behold his torture and listen to his screams!" "Unhappily, my child!" "Why should you doubt my word, monsieur? Have I ever in my life deceived you?" He shrugged his shoulders. "How can I tell!" he sneered.