The Painter's Honeymoon

'Well, have I convinced you?' he demanded. 'Here, take a drink of this. I want to ask you some questions.' ¡¡¡¡I rolled my head negatively on the floor. 'Your arguments are too- er- forcible,' I managed to articulate, at cost of great pain to my aching throat. ¡¡¡¡'You'll be all right in half an hour,' he assured me. 'And I promise I won't use any more physical demonstrations. Get up now. You can sit on a chair.' ¡¡¡¡And, toy that I was of this monster, the discussion of Omar and the Preacher was resumed. And half the night we sat up over it. ¡¡¡¡¡CHAPTER TWELVE. ¡¡¡¡THE LAST TWENTY-FOUR HOURS have witnessed a carnival of brutality. From cabin to forecastle it seems to have broken out like a contagion. I scarcely know where to begin. Wolf Larsen was really the cause of it. The relations among the men, strained and made tense by feuds, quarrels, and grudges, were in a state of unstable equilibrium. Wolf Larsen disturbed the equilibrium, and evil passions flared up like flame in prairie-grass.