“Would you have treated me as a prisoner of war if you had captured me?” “No,” broke involuntarily from Thomson’s lips. “Very well!” “I demand to be taken before Captain Brown. Surely he is human; he will not give me into the hands of a savage to be tortured!” exclaimed the wretch in frantic desperation. Again Judah smiled his calm, dispassionate smile as he examined his rifle, and then slowly brought it to his shoulder. “You who torture the slave without a thought of mercy, and who could treat a young white man--one of your own race--as you did Mr. Maxwell, fear to be tortured? Why, where is your boasted Southern bravery that has promised so much?” Bill’s teeth glittered in a grin of hate and fear. “God! It’s murder to kill a man with his hands up!” he shrieked. “It rests with you whether or not I shoot you,” replied Judah calmly. “I am going to give you one chance for life. It is a slim one, but more than you would give me.” Bill eyed him with a venomous look of terror and distrust; but his manner had changed to fawning smoothness. “Judah,” he began, “look a-here, I own I done you dirt mean, I do. I ask yer pardon--I couldn’t do more’n that ef you was a white man, could I? Well, sir, I know you’re a brave nigger, an’ I know, too, it’s nat’ral for you to lay it up agin me, fer I done yer dirt an’ no mistake. But I had to; ef I’d showed you quarter, every nigger on the plantation ’d been hard to handle. It was necessary discipline, boy; nothin’ particular agin you.” Bill’s beady black eyes never left the Negro’s face as he watched for a sign of wavering in the calm smile. “Look a-here, I can tell you a heap of things ’d be worth more’n my life to the gal, an’ Titus couldn’t blame me for givin’ the scheme away; what’s money to life? It’s worth a fortune to you to know what I can tell you this minute; only let me out of this, Jude.” But Judah knew his man. Not for one instant did Thomson deceive him. He judged it a righteous duty to condemn him to death. “You stole Winona’s liberty and mine. I know what your promises are worth. Do you think I would listen to a proposition coming from you, you infernal scoundrel? Get ready. I’ve sworn to kill you and I intend to keep my oath. When I count three jump backwards or I put a bullet into your miserable carcass. If you are alive when you strike the river, you can swim ashore; it’s one chance in ten. Choose.” Bill grew white; his eyes gleamed like those of a trapped rat, but he seemed to realize that it was useless to plead for mercy at the hands of the calm, smiling Negro before him. “One!” counted Judah, moving toward Thomson a step as he counted. There he paused, desiring that the wretch should suffer all, in anticipation, that he had caused others to suffer. “Two!” Thomson moved backward involuntarily, but still he did not lose his footing. Again Judah paused. “Three!”