Then he paced back and forth across the floor, finally stopping before the fire.
"This is as near hell as anything I ever knew," he said, "and so far as I can see there is no legal way out of it.

We are utterly helpless to assist." "We are not," I answered hotly, "if we are men.

There may be no legal way in which we can beat this villain, but there is an illegal one, unless we are already too late, and I propose to use it, whether you join me or not." "You have a plan?
What is it ?" "The only one feasible.

I thought of its possibility before on the boat, when a suspicion of this situation first came to me.

You are sure the girls are still at the plantation house?
that they know nothing of this condition ?" "I have reason to believe so.