1 52 DOGGED JACK.

body seemed to rush into his face. His father had
once or twice before flogged him for obstinacy and
disobedience, but each time the boy had felt the
whip across his shoulders, it had roused all the evil
in his nature to fury.
 "You shall never force me! I refuse to answer
your questions! I'll never answer them," he cried
out in his passion, as if the demon of obstinacy and
wilfulness possessed him.
 The words were hardly out of his lips when his
father caught him by the shoulder with one hand,
then raising the other in which the whip was, he
flogged him more heavily and severely than he had
ever done before.
 As each sharp blow descended on his shoulders,
Jack's lips seemed to grow tighter together, and his
eyes flashed with rage and fury. But he never once
uttered a cry. Never yet when enduring his floggings
had he called out, although the pain was so great
that it required a mighty effort to prevent himself
doing so.
 For a few moments Mr. Gilbert ceased beating the
boy, though he still held him tightly in his grasp.
 "Will you answer me now?" he said in a low,
half-exhausted voice, for to punish his son corporeally
gave him anguish that Jack little knew of.