"Be quiet," he said, "or you
are a dead woman."
She stopped screaming and lay there, her face twitching, and her eyes
bright with terror.
"Now listen," he said, in the same husky voice. "You incarnate fiend,
you asked me just now how I could keep you quiet. I will tell you; I
can keep you quiet by running this knife up to the hilt in your
throat," and once more he pricked her with its point. "It would be
murder," he went on, "but I do not care for that. You and others
between you have not made my life so pleasant for me that I am
especially anxious to preserve it. Now, listen. I will give you the
two hundred and fifty pounds that I have brought, and you shall have
the two hundred and fifty a year. But if you ever again attempt to
extort more, or if you molest me either by spreading stories against
my character or by means of legal prosecution, or in any other way, I
swear by the Almighty that I will murder you. I may have to kill
myself afterwards--I don't care if I do, provided I kill you first. Do
you understand me? you tiger, as you call yourself. If I have to hunt
you down, as they do tigers, I will come up with you at last and
/kill/ you. You have driven me to it, and, by heaven! I will! Come,
speak up, and tell me that you understand, or I may change my mind and
do it now," and once more he touched her with the knife.
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