Part 32 (2/2)
Ruloff's flat face widened in a grin of anticipation He had a big score to pay And he was there to pay it The fear of the dog was still upon him; and the shame that this child, the cause of all his hu up a tree It would take ato square that
Sonya cried out, in mortal terror, at his first step Then--probably only in her hysterical ih afterward she vowed it had actually happened--ca side, she felt the pressure of a war cold muzzle was thrust And, over her, ca her father with a high-pitched loud laugh of genuine courage, she shrilled:
”You don't dare touch er on me!”
And she h voice proved she meant it; proved it to the dumfounded Ruloff, in a way that sent funny little shi+vers down his spine
The ured little wisp of huay fearlessness
”Why don't I dare?” he blustered, lifting the brass-buckled weapon again
”You don't dare to!” she laughed, wildly ”You don't dare, because you know he'll kill you, This time he won't just knock you down He'll KILL you! He'll never let you hit ain I know it He's HERE! You don't dare touch me! You won't ever dare touch me! He--”
She choked, in her shout of weird exultation The man, ridden by his racial superstition, stared open-mouthed at the tiny demon who screeched defiance at him
And, there, in the diht fancy see, close at the child's side; crouching in silentLad appear from nowhere and stand thus, by the veranda, a few minutes earlier--these and the once-tiht on the stupid, easily-thrilleddown the belt, and bolting out into the friendly sunlight
”The olf! I--I saw it! I--at least--God of Russia, what DID I see?
What did SHE see?”
Over a nificent lifeless body on the veranda bent the tho had loved Lad best and whom he had served so worshi+pfully for sixteen years The Mistress's face ith tears she did not try to check
In the Master's throat was a lump that made speech painful For the tenth tiers above the still heart of the dog; seeking vainly for sign of fluttering
”No use!” he said, thickly, harking back by instinct to a half-reine has broken down”
”No,” quoted the sobbing Mistress, wiser than he ”'The engineer has left it'”
THE END