"You're beginning to bleed! Did you know that the
sight of blood affects me as it does a leopard? I thirst for more--if
that of one I hate! When next I strike you, I shall strike deeper!"
That she fully intended to murder him, Nick now, had not a doubt. The
homicidal madness was in her eyes, in her every feature, her every
motion, and it rang in every word that fell from her bloodless lips.
Yet the inflexible nerve of the detective did not for a moment desert
him.
"Send the blade home at once, if you like," he said, with a scornful
frown.
"Not yet--not yet!" she cried, shrilly. "There'll be time for that."
"Time and to spare," sneered Nick.
"I first wish to torture you, as you've tortured me!"
"Go ahead, then."
"Once more! Are you ready?"
"Let it come."
Again she drew back the glittering blade, only to mock him with several
pretended thrusts, hoping thus to create and prolong an agony of fear
and suspense.
A more viciously cruel and vindictive creature never drew the breath of
life.
She laughed again, and slowly pressed the weapon closer--and then, with
a sudden startled cry, she drew back and leaped to her feet.
A noise like that of a mighty cannonade seemed to shake even the solid
walls of this buried chamber.
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