of the rubber bracelet.
”This damn thing will stop my circulation. Do you want to kill me?”
”Not quite. Stop struggling, Will, you’ll feel better.”
”Loosen the rope, you’re pulling me apart.”
”Say please.”
”Please, bugger you.”
Nigel moved the chair a fraction forward. “That’s not enough.”
”Lie still and relax your muscles and listen to me.”
”How can I listen when I’m in the most frightful pain?”
”You’re not in the most frightful pain. The pain is negligible. Listen to me.”
”Go to hell.”
”If you get treated like this it’s your own fault for being so violent. That’s something which you would have under stood long ago if you had been capable of thinking. Of course violent men get put into cages and stretched on racks by men who are less violent but more clever. It’s the only way to make them listen.”
”I’ll never listen to you, not if I have to scream for an hour. Loosen the rope, my ankle’s breaking.”
”No, it isn’t. You have listened, Will. The violent men do listen in the end, because it’s to their advantage. You remember that time when we were ten and I hung you up by your wrists from the scaffolding on the building site because you wouldn’t do what I wanted?”
”Yes, and I remember what I did to you after you let me down!”
”All right, but you also did what I wanted.”
”And damn stupid it was too. You always were a crazy pervert.”
”You see, you’ve quite forgotten that you’re supposed to be in pain.”
”I haven’t. You’ll kill me one day with one of your damn contraptions. I can feel my wrist bleeding. Could you look?”
”You can’t catch me that way, Will. If you don’t mind I think I’ll turn the light on. You’re an interesting sight.”
Nigel tilted his chair slightly and turned the electric light switch. An unshaded electric bulb above the bed revealed Will outstretched and twisted between his pinioned wrist and his pinioned ankle. The unbuttoned pajamas showed his braced polished chest with a runnel of jet-black curls running down the centre of it. Will jerked again, clawing at his caught wrist with his free hand. Then he lay still panting, eyes bulging, his flushed face turned full to Nigel, his gritted teeth flashing under his moustache. “You’ve tightened the rope again, damn you.”
”A little, possibly. There.”
”If you play this trick once more I’ll kill you.”
”No, no. Last time I admit was a little inefficient, but the damage you did to yourself getting out was entirely your own fault. If you’d just stayed still and heard what I wanted to say you’d have been quite unhurt.”
”You ought to be in a bin.”
”Don’t be silly. Ever since I was a child you’ve been using your fists upon me. My cleverness and ingenuity just make us quits. I wanted to tell you something important, entirely for your own advantage I may say, and as I knew you’d rush at me like a mad bull if I turned up without taking precautions I decided I must tie you up just once again.”
”You enjoy this sort of thing.”
”Perhaps I do, Will. You must just try to see it as a form of brotherly affection.”
”Christ!”
”Blood’s thicker than water, Will, especially twin blood.
You are the other half of myself, a weird brutish alien half, doubtless a lesser half, but connected to me by an ectoplasmic necessity for which love would be too weak a name.”
”You’ve always detested me, Nigel.”
”I am afraid you are very stupid and understand very little.”
”You peached on me about that bloody stamp.”
”A routine castigation, my dear Will. I have to set some limits to your misdoings.”
”You’ve always persecuted me.”
”In self-defense. And also a little because you need me. You need me as the brute needs the angel, as the tender back needs the whip and the suppliant neck the axe. Any juxtaposition of brutish material and spirit involves suffering.”
Nigel shunted the chair an inch backward and Will screamed.
”Stop it, Nigel, stop it, I’ll faint with pain!”
”Nonsense. There, is that better? Now will you stop twisting yourself about and attend to what I have to say.”
”Who’s been punching you? I’m glad to see somebody has.” One side of Nigel’s face was severely bruised, the bluish shadow turning to purple as it ringed the eye.
”Danby.”
”Danby? Why ever Danby? Not that I care. I’ll black the other eye for you when I get out of this.”
”Never mind. Listen, Will. Are you listening or do you want to be strung up any tighter?”
”I’m listening, bugger you, get on with it. Loosen the bloody rope a bit more, will you.”
”Please.”
”Please.”
”All right. Now listen. It’s about Adelaide.”
”About Adelaide? What about Adelaide?”
”You love Adelaide, don’t you.”
”If I do it’s no bloody business of yours. I know you’ve been after her. You tried to get hold of her when you came back to London.”
”No, I didn’t.”
”You keep away from Adelaide, or I’ll really do you. That girl belongs to me and I’ll have her. I’ll get her if I have to kill her in the process. What’s more she loves me.”
”So you imagine. But suppose there was somebody else?”
”How do you mean, somebody else? No one could possibly be after Ad, she doesn’t see anybody, she doesn’t go anywhere.”
”She doesn’t need to. It all happens at home.”
”What on earth do you mean? Christ, do you mean you-“
”No. Danby.”
”What do you mean, Danby? Don’t torture me!”
”Danby is Adelaide’s lover. Adelaide is Danby’s mistress. It’s been going on for years. I thought you ought to know.”
Will lay still, breathing deeply. Then he said quite quietly, “Nigel, let go of the rope. I promise and swear that I won’t hurt you.”
Nigel got up and drew the stick out between the rungs of the chair. He unwound the rope and the tension was loosened. Will turned stiffly and began to sit up on the bed. He groaned and began to pull at the tightened rubber manacle at his wrist. Nigel helped him to pull it off, and then loosened the anklet. Will, groaning softly, chafed the bruised flesh at wrist and ankle. He said, “I don’t believe you, Nigel.”
”It’s true.”
”Prove it.”
”Ask Adelaide. Meanwhile take a look at this. You know Danby’s writing.”
Nigel handed Will a small piece of paper which had been torn across several ways and stuck together again. The paper said,
Will studied the paper carefully. Then he uttered a long piercing shriek and turned and fell with his face into the pillow.
”Sssh, don’t make such a noise-“
Will sat up again, his face contorted, his jaw shuddering, grinning with pain and rage. “I’ll kill that man. I’ll kill
