I slipped my arm around the big dog's neck, and clung to the
two of them. And it seemed to me that while I clung thus, with my
head bent and my face hidden, one of them kissed my hair.
"It never occurred to me--that there might be danger for you," he
was whispering. "To have that horror come near you--oh, my God! Oh,
my God!"
I was terrified at sight of his face, dead-white, with eyes of
steel, and straight lips, and pinched nostrils; the terrible face of
the avenging white man, a face as inexorable as judgment. I hid my
own before it, and trembled; and yet was glad that I had seen it.
I stammered: "There was--a devil--and then a Jinnee came. And I
heard--sounds. Then I fell. Did--did The Jinnee--" My voice died in
my throat.
His eyes were ice, his mouth a grim, pale line.
"That has been attended to," he said composedly.
He blamed himself for having been thoughtless. "But I was so glad to
have you come here, that afternoon, that I could think of nothing
else!" And it seemed that this particular bit of woodland was his,
bought because its quiet beauty pleased him. He was in the habit of
coming here frequently; it had never occurred to him that danger
could lurk near it.
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