r side; but the look that her son had seen in his father's eyes held
her and steeled her with a sort of desperate madness, and her arm again
rose.

A long cry, an anguished wail, almost superhuman in its power to shatter
the silence of the night, and more startling than any human cry could
be, struck disorganizingly through the drama. It may have hastened the
catastrophe. Mr. Gilbert was unnerved for a moment, and in exasperation
picked up a clod and threw it at the offending dog trembling on the
terrace. When he turned again, his son was kneeling beside his
unconscious mother, peering anxiously into her pallid face, and calling
her softly.

In a stride Mr. Gilbert was upon him. A hand armed with strength and
fury caught up the shirt on the lad's shoulder, raised him, and flung
him away with so great violence that the slender body struck the ground
as a log. Mr. Gilbert tenderly picked up his wife and bore her into the
house.

The fall had half stunned the boy. As he slowly struggled to a sitting
posture the moon danced fantastically, and some black trees crowning a
near hill bowed and rose, and walked sidewise to and fro. A whine, low,
cautious, packed with sympathy and solicitude, pleaded at the pickets,
but the boy gave it no attention. He sat for a time, rose giddily,
swayed as he dressed himself, and with deliberation walked to the gate.
The dog, whining, trembling, crawled to meet him; but the boy, instead
of caressing him, ordered him quietly but firmly to the kennel.
Obedience was slow, and the animal looked up incredulous, wondering. The
order had to be repeated. Finally the dog obeyed, frequently pausing to
look back, but his master stood inflexible.

Passing round the house, and without thinking or caring about hat and
overcoat, he noiselessly passed out the front gate, for a moment studied
the big house that had cradled him, bred much of his anguish, and held
all of his love, and firmly stepped out into the road. There was a
gnawing ache somewhere. Assuredly that one blow,--and from _her_,--could
not have caused it. After finding it in his throat, he was much
relieved, and struck out on secure legs.

It did not occur to him that he was an outlaw and outcast. He did not
think at all. Hence there was no plan in his going. He did not even
understand that something deeper within him than had ever operated
before had assumed, in the disqualification of his ordinary ruling
powers, an imperious regency, and t