"Because I was easy with you in the past, you fancy I may be if my chance comes in the future. You are wrong!"
"Time will show that I am not bluffing now. I have given you more chances than you deserved. I shall give you no more. When next my turn comes, I shall have no mercy."
Somehow Harris shivered a bit despite himself, for he knew that Frank Merriwell was not given to idle words. True, Frank had been easy with his enemies at college, but he must have changed since leaving Yale and going out into the world to fight the great battle of life. He had seen that the world gave him no favors, and now it was likely he would retort in the same manner.
"Perhaps I may have no mercy now," said Harris. "You are in my power, and I can do with you as I choose. I am a stranger in this town. No one knows I am here. What if you were found in this old building with your throat cut? How could the deed be traced to me? Better spare your threats, Merriwell, for if I really thought there was danger that you would bother me in the future, I swear I'd finish you here and now!"
Mazarin had finished his work of destruction. All the costly apparatus was broken and ruined, and the little man was standing amid the shattered wreck, wringing his hands and sobbing like a child that is filled with remorse after shattering a toy in a fit of anger.
"What's the matter with you?" he fiercely demanded. "What are you whimpering about?"
"Now is my time to cry! All those things should have been mine."
"And that knocks out Mr. Frank Merriwell. Wasn't that what you were after?"
"But to have to smash all those beautiful things! I have broken my own heart!"
Harris turned from his repentant companion, his disgust and anger redoubled.
Frank, for all of the bitter rage in his heart, could see that Mazarin was not entirely bad. The little man's conscience was troubling him now.
"I hate fools!" grated Harris. "I hate sentiment! A man with sentiment is a fool! You're a fool, Merriwell; you always were sentimental."
"As far as you are concerned," spoke the captive, "I shall put sentiment behind me in the future. I am satisfied that you are irreclaimably bad, and you have the best chance in the world of ending your career on the gallows."