'
Ravengar yawned and glanced at his watch.
'It's nearly my dinner-time,' said he.
Again Hugo sprang forward, and, snatching at the watch, tore it and the
chain from Ravengar's waistcoat, dashed them to the floor, and stamped
on them. He was amazed, and he was also delighted, at his own fury. The
lust of destruction had got hold of him.
'Ass!' he murmured, suddenly lowering his voice. 'Can't you guess what I
mean to do?'
'I cannot,' Ravengar stammered.
'I mean to put you to the same test to which you put me. You arranged
that I should spend twenty-two hours in a vault without ventilation. At
the end of five hours I was by no means dead. I might have survived the
twenty-two. But, frankly, I don't fancy I should. And I don't fancy you
will. In fact, I'm convinced that you won't.'
'Indeed!' said Ravengar uncertainly.
'You think this scene is not real,' Hugo continued. 'You think it can't
be real. You refuse to credit the fact that this time to-morrow you will
be dead. You refuse to admit to yourself that I am in earnest--deadly,
fatal earnest.'
'Upon my soul!' Ravengar burst out, standing, 'I believe you are.'
'Good,' said Hugo. 'You are waking up, positively. You are getting
accustomed to the unpleasant prospect of not dying in your bed
surrounded by inconsolable dependants.
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