"Do your duty, blacksmith," said the officer, turning his back and walking toward the door.
The negro advanced with the chains cautiously, and attempted to snap one of the shackles on the doctor's right arm.
With sudden maniac frenzy, Dr. Cameron seized the negro by the throat, hurled him to the floor, and backed against the wall.
The Lieutenant approached and remonstrated:
"Why compel me to add the indignity of personal violence? You must submit."
"I am your prisoner," fiercely retorted the doctor. "I have been a soldier in the armies of America, and I know how to die. Kill me, and my last breath will be a blessing. But while I have life to resist, for myself and for my people, this thing shall not be done!"
The Lieutenant called a sergeant and a file of soldiers, and the sergeant stepped forward to seize the prisoner.
Dr. Cameron sprang on him with the ferocity of a tiger, seized his musket, and attempted to wrench it from his grasp.
The men closed in on him. A short passionate fight, and the slender, proud, gray-haired man lay panting on the floor.
Four powerful assailants held his hands and feet, and the negro smith, with a grin, secured the rivet on the right ankle and turned the key in the padlock on the left.
As he drove the rivet into the shackle on his left arm, a spurt of bruised blood from the old Mexican War wound stained the iron.
