"
"We are wasting time," Wingate declared a little shortly. "It is better
that we have a complete understanding. Get this into your head," he went
on, drawing a long, ugly-looking pistol from his trousers pocket, and
displaying it. "This is the finest automatic pistol in the world, and I
am one of the best marksmen in the American Army. I shall leave you, for
the present, ungagged, but if rescue comes to you by any efforts of your
own, I give you my word of honour as an American gentleman that I shall
shoot the three of you and be proud of my night's work."
"And swing for it afterwards," Dredlinton threatened. "The man's mad!"
"The man is in earnest," Phipps growled. "That much, at least, I think we
can grant him. What is the meaning of that piece of mummery, Wingate?" he
added, pointing to the loaf of bread. "What are your terms? You must
state them, sooner or later. Let us have them now."
"Agreed," Wingate replied. "The costs of that loaf is, I believe, to be
exact, one and tenpence ha'penny--one and tenpence ha'penny to poor
people whose staple food it is. When you sign an authority to sell wheat
in sufficient bulk to bring the cost down to sixpence, you can have the
loaf and go as soon as the sale is finished. You will find here," he went
on, laying a document upon the table, "a calculation which may help you.
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