“ ‘Have you the slate, Harold?’ cried the older man, as this strange being fell rather than sat down into a chair. ‘Are his hands loose? Now, then, give him the pencil. You are to ask the questions, Mr. Melas, and he will write the answers. Ask him first of all whether he is prepared to sign the papers?’

“The man’s eyes flashed fire.

“ ‘Never!’ he wrote in Greek upon the slate.

“ ‘On no condition?’ I asked, at the bidding of our tyrant.

“ ‘Only if I see her married in my presence by a Greek priest whom I know.’

“The man giggled in his venomous way.

“ ‘You know what awaits you, then?’

“ ‘I care nothing for myself.’