can do as you please. But now--just now--you are in my power, and you're
going to play my game. Got that?"

"I can see myself doing it," said Fletcher Hill.

"Yes, you will do it." A sudden deep note of savagery sounded in Warden's
voice. "Not to save your own skin, Mr. Fletcher Hill, but for the sake
of--something more valuable than that--something more precious even than
your cussed pride. You'll do it for the sake of the girl you're going to
marry. And you'll do it--now."

"Shall I?" said Fletcher Hill.

Bill Warden's hand suddenly came forth and gripped him by the shoulder.
"Damn you!" he said. "Do you think I want to save your life?"

The words were low, spoken with a concentrated passion more terrible than
open violence. He looked closely into Hill's eyes, and his own were
flaming like the eyes of a baited animal.

Hill looked straight back at him without the stirring of an eyelid. "Take
your hand off me!" he said.

It was the word of the superior officer. Warden's hand fell as it were
mechanically. There followed a tense silence.

Warden made a sharp movement. "I did it to save your life," he said.
"You'd have died like a dog within ten seconds if I hadn't turned you
back."