Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/176

 “But look here, do you really mean to go on with this?” answered Val, alarmed for the first time. It occurred to him that these men had no wish to exact a promise from him. They simply wanted to kill him and get done with the affair. It might seem that the black eye he had given O’Hara was not sufficient cause for such vengeance as the horsefaced one intended to exact, but these things are merely relative. To a man of O’Hara’s disposition a black eye was provocative to murder. That was his code, and as long as he was in power there was no one to say him nay. This flashed across Val’s mind, and he saw that he was on distinctly dangerous ground. It would be well to give in at once.

“You don’t really mean⸺” his speech was shut off by O’Hara’s thumb on his windpipe, pressing until things were almost black in front of Val’s eyes. He opened his mouth, gasping for breath.

“That’s it, kid,” said O’Hara, popping a gag into his mouth and tying it around the back of his head tightly.

Trussed hand and foot, and gagged, Val looked up at the pair helplessly.

“Pretty little t’ing, ain’t he?” asked Rat.

“Yeah. Too bad he’s gotta shuffle off so young. Well, it’s ther way of all flesh in dis here vale er tears.”

The world went black in front of Val’s eyes for a moment. This was something he had not looked for. This pair of scoundrels actually intended to put an end to his life at once. Up to now it had been more or less of a game to Val, because he knew that he had but to say the word, and he would be released. But things had suddenly got out of hand even more than Teck