"When you find yourself roasting over a slow charcoal fire, you will be ready to sign anything I wish you to." So saying, he turned and left the room.

He talked for some time to the men outside, then Charlie heard him ride off.
"You villain," he said to himself.

"When you come, at the end of a week, you will not find me here; but, if I get a chance of having a reckoning with you, it will be bad for you." Charlie's progress was apparently slow.

The next day he was able to sit up and feed himself.

Two days later he could totter across the room, and lie down before the fire.