if you want to! But I'm going to tell--_tell_--_TELL_!"

"I will kill y'!" he vowed, and doubled the rope into a short, four-ply
whip.

Johnnie forgot everything then but Cis's danger. Once more he came to
put himself, thinly clad though he was now, between her and Big Tom.
"Oh, don't y' see she's half crazy?" he cried to the latter. "She don't
know what she's sayin'! Oh, Mister Barber! Mister Barber!"

"They'll arrest him! They'll send him to jail! To the chair!" Cis was
shouting, almost joyously, remembering only that now she was torturing
their tormentor. "But I'll tell! I'll tell!"

Barber did not answer her. "Git out o' my way!" he growled to Johnnie.
"'R I'll lick you, too!"

Facing Barber, Johnnie leaned back against Cis, half covering her body
with his own. "Lick me," he begged. "Oh, but don't touch her!"

Barber bared his teeth, turning a look of hate upon the boy. "You!" he
cried, and cursed. "I'll lick y', all right! I'll lick y' so's it'll be
a week before y' leave y'r bed!" Taking a firmer hold of the looped
strands, he swung them above his head; then with a deep breath, and with
all the power of his right arm, brought them down.

A shriek--from Cis.

But Barber had not struck her. The blow had reached only the upraised
face and breast of the boy, driving him against Cis with terrible force.
Even in his agony Johnnie knew that, as he was pressing against her, she
might be inadvertently struck as Big Tom struck at him; so, staggering
sidewise, his arms held, crossed, above his head to keep the rope from
his eyes, he got away from the table and the bound girl. But as he went
he continued to clutch with all of his fingers at the rope which was now
descending with awful regularity.

Shrieking, Cis covered her eyes by laying her head upon the table; and
now she tried to cover one ear, then the other, to shut out the sound
of the blows. And to her screams was added the voice of old Grandpa,
whimpering in the bedroom, while he beat feebly at the door.

Johnnie, however, made no sound. Each stinging blow of the rope whip
knocked the breath out of him, sending him farther and farther away from
the table. Sometimes he reeled, sometimes he spun, so that as Barber
drove him with lash after lash, he went as if performing a sort of
grotesque dance. And all the while his face was purpling in two long
stripes where had fallen that first cruel scourge.

With each swing of the strands Barber gasped out a word: