"You wouldn't see me at
Belle Plain; what was left for me but to have you brought here?"
While Murrell was speaking, the signal that had told of his own
presence on the opposite shore of the bayou was heard again.
This served to arrest his attention. A look of uncertainty
passed over his face, then he made an impatient gesture as if he
dismissed some thought that had forced itself upon him, and
turned to Betty.
"You don't ask what my purpose is where you are concerned; have
you no curiosity on that score?" She endeavored to meet his
glance with a glance as resolute, then her eyes sought the boy's
upturned face. "I am going to send you down river, Betty. Later
I shall join you in New Orleans, and when I leave the country you
shall go with me--"
"Never!" gasped Betty.
"As my wife, or however you choose to call it. I'll teach you
what a man's love is like," he boasted, and extended his hand.
Betty shrank from him, and his hand fell at his side. He looked
at her steadily out of his deep-sunk eyes in which blazed the
fires of his passion, and as he looked, her face paled and
flushed by turns. "You may learn to be kind to me, Betty," he
said. "You may find it will be worth your while." Betty made no
answer, she only gathered Hanniba closer to her side. "Why not
accept what I have to offer, Betty?" again he went nearer her,
and again she shrank from him, but the madness of his mood was in
the ascendant. He seized her and drew her to him.
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