CHAPTER XVII.
HELEN'S TORTURE.
Bound so tightly that she could not rise--could not resist, Helen Diltwas put to the torture by the cruel hag, who had received orders toeither drive her actually mad or kill her.
Helen at first had screamed.
A continuance of this was prevented by the hag, who gagged Helen mosteffectually.
Tige was a fiend.
A fiend!
The word has not sufficient meaning to describe what she really was.
If Satan ever quits his sulphurous house to take up his residence in aparticular human being, he certainly was residing then in the earthlyform of the terrible woman who presided over that private mad-house,and was the arbiter of the fates of so many beings who were helpless inher vile clutches.
And torture!
And the sight of human agony!
She loved them.
She loved to hear the shrieks of agony that she wrung from her victims.As prudence made it necessary to still these sounds by gags, thefiendish woman refined her cruelties the more, that the loss of thishorrid music might be compensated for by the greater writhings of hervictims.
Regarding Helen, her instructions were as plain as they were fiendish!
"Drive her mad or kill her!"
In few cases was she allowed so broad a latitude of action, and sheproceeded to Helen's torture with the same zest that a gourmandexhibits when he sits down before a table that groans beneath theweight of some particular thing which he loves to exercise his teethupon.
Helen was fastened to the bed securely, and, as we have said, wasgagged.
And then, as stated in a previous chapter, Tige amused herself bytaking a pincers and dragging out the nails of Helen's toes.
Kind Heaven, what agony that is!
It is terrible!
Terrible! Yes, and awful and horrible as well!
How Helen suffered!
How she strained--but in vain--to burst the bonds which held her!
How Tige chuckled!
How she gloated!
How she made Helen writhe and moan!
The dewdrops of agony were not long in making their appearance on thevictim's forehead--great, large drops, which rolled off and down herface to make room for others.
"Ha, ha!" laughed Tige, showing her teeth like a snarling dog; "oh-ho!don't I love this! Groan and moan and twist and squirm; it is all afeast to me."
And Helen suffered so much that she would have hailed death as awelcome release.
Aye, she even prayed that she might die.
She had nothing to hope for; rescue she thought impossible, or it wouldhave been accomplished before this. To die would be the easiest way forher.
"There, how did that feel?"
Tige asked the question with a chuckle, as she ripped another nail outof the living flesh.
Feel!
Helen was writhing in anguish.
She made one more effort to burst her bonds.
She strained until the veins were swollen out on her face and neck likewhipcords, and seemed on the point of bursting.
But the work of tying her had been too well done, and she finally fellback in a state of utter exhaustion, with moan after moan coming in asort of ripple.
"What!" exclaimed the fiendish hag; "make such a fuss about a littleone like that, which came out so easily? Why, I should have consideredthat one a pleasure. Just wait until I get hold of the big one. Ha, ha!that's where the fun comes in. You see, it's more deeply rooted, andI've seen some I wasn't strong enough to pull until I rigged up a sortof tackle I have for the purpose."
Helen shuddered.
And well she might.
Poor girl!
It was monstrous that the law should permit the existence of suchplaces--such private mad-houses--where such infernal wickedness can beenacted.
Tige was grinning like a hyena.
She made one or two feints of pursuing her hideous work, and thenhalted to gloat over the shudder which each time thrilled her victim'sframe.
At last she fastened the pincers on the nail of one of Helen's greattoes.
She gave a strong twitch.
Helen groaned.
The human hyena gave a stronger pull.
Helen lifted herself to the limit her bonds permitted, and flungherself against the ropes, which would not break, but held her withcruel rigor.
Again Tige pulled.
And this time pulled direct, and with an amount of strength which couldnot have dwelt in a less sinewy frame than hers.
Then she twisted the pincers.
Had she been free from her gag, Helen must have shrieked so loudly thatshe would have been heard for blocks around.
Again Tige pulled direct.
She meanwhile kept watch of Helen's face.
Her victim could stand no more.
This Tige saw.
"Now!" she hissed.
Then, exerting her strength, she threw it all into that one motion,and---- As the nail was dragged out by the roots, Helen uttered onelong, quivering moan, and then laid there pallid and motionless.
One would have thought her dead.
But Tige's experience told her different.
She knew that Helen had only fainted.
And she knew, also, that the suffering she had endured would produce anervous shock from which Helen might never recover.
Tige made no attempt to release Helen from her bonds.
She merely loosened the gag a little, that she might breathe easier.
Then flinging a pail of water over her victim, as she might have flunga worthless bone to a cur, Tige took her departure, allowing Helen toreturn to consciousness or die, she did not much care which.
But she did not forget to take with her the nails she had extracted.
Reaching the door of her own room, secured by a number of strong andelaborately made locks, she paused to unlock it, and then entered.
At one side of the room was a bed, in the center a table, in one recessa sofa, which, in addition to a few chairs, made up the furniture ofthe room, save a small glass-front cabinet that was attached to thewall.
The door of this she unlocked.
Glancing in, she gave vent to a chuckle that was perfectly horrid.
What was it--perhaps you ask--that produced this chuckle on Tige's part?
Nothing more nor less than a few score of human toe-nails, dragged outby the roots as Helen's had been.
They were the horrible mementoes that drew back to her memory thosewhom she had tortured in days gone by.
And to this collection she now had an addition to make, an additionfurnished at the expense of a poor girl who had never wronged a personin the world, who had never made herself an enemy, but who simply stoodin an evil man's way to a fortune.
Helen did not die.
No, she lived, ardently as she prayed that she might not.
And of a strength of character that is unusual in a woman, she did notsuffer as great a nervous shock as Tige had anticipated.
"I guess it'll have to be 'kill her!'" the hyena-like woman muttered toherself. "But I'll not do that until I've had a little more fun withher."
Fun!
If fun it was to her, she had plenty of it. But to her victim it wassomething far--far different!