"I refuse," Engleton answered. "I refuse once and for always. I tell
you that I have made up my mind to see you punished for this. How I get
out I don't care, but I shall get out, and when I do, you two will be
laid by the heels."

"We came here to-night," Forrest said slowly, "prepared to compromise
with you."

"There is no compromise," Engleton answered fiercely. "There is nothing
which you could offer which could repay me for the horror of the nights
you have left me to shiver here in this d--d vault. Don't flatter
yourself that I shall ever forget it. I stay on because I cannot
escape, but I would sooner stay here for ever than beg for mercy from
either of you."

"Upon my word," Forrest declared, "our friend is quite a hero."

"I am hero enough, at any rate," Engleton answered, "to refuse to
bargain with you. Get out, both of you, before I lose my temper."

Forrest came a little further into the room. The thunder of the sea
seemed almost above their heads. The little lamp on the table by
Engleton's side gave little more than a weird, unnatural light around
the circle in which he sat.

"That isn't quite all that we came to say," Forrest remarked coldly.
"To tell you the truth we have had enough of playing jailer."

"I can assure you," Engleton answered, "that I have had equally enough
of being your prisoner."

"We are agreed, then," Forrest continued smoothly. "You will probably
be relieved when I tell you that we have decided to end it."

Engleton rose to his feet.

"So much the better," he said. "You might keep me here till doomsday,
and the end would be the same."

"We do not propose," Forrest continued, "to keep you here till
doomsday, or anything like it. What we have come to say to you is
this--that if you still refuse to give your promise--I need not say
more than that--we are going to set you free."

"Do you mean that literally?" Engleton asked.

"Perhaps not altogether as you would wish to understand it," Forrest
admitted. "We shall give you a chance at high tide to swim for your
life."

Engleton shrunk a little back. After all, his nerves were a little
shattered.

"Out there?" he asked, pointing to the seaward end of the passage.

Forrest nodded.

"It will be a chance for you," he said.

Engleton looked at them for a moment, dumbfounded.

"It will be murder," he said slowly.

Forrest shrugged his shoulders.

"You may call it so if you like," he answered. "Personally, I should