FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133  
134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   >>   >|  
e asked anxiously for news; but he had none of a cheering nature to give her. Beelzebub would not look at food. "I knew he wouldn't," he said. "He has been like this before." "Mr. Curtis!" she exclaimed. He shrugged his shoulders. "It's Mercer's way. He regards the boy as his own personal property, and so he is, more or less. He picked him up in the bush when he wasn't more than a few days old. The mother was dead. Mercer took him, and he was brought up among the farm men. He's a queer young animal, more like a dog than a human being. He needs hammering now and then. I kick him occasionally myself. But Mercer goes too far." "What had he done?" questioned Sybil. "Oh, it was some neglect of the horses. I don't know exactly what. Mercer isn't precisely patient, you know. And when the fellow gets thoroughly scared he's like a rabbit; he can't move. Mercer thinks him obstinate, and the rest follows as a natural consequence. I must ask you to excuse me. I have work to do." "One moment!" Sybil laid a nervous hand on his arm. "Mr. Curtis, if--if you can't persuade the poor boy to take any food, how will my husband do so?" "He won't," said Curtis. "He'll hold him down while I drench him, that's all." "That must be very bad for him," she said. "Of course it is. But we can't let him die, you know." He looked at her suddenly. "Don't you worry yourself, Mrs. Mercer," he said kindly. "He isn't quite the same as a white man, though it may offend your Western prejudices to hear me say so. Beelzebub will pull through all right. They are wonderfully tough, these chaps." "I wonder if I could persuade him to take something," she said. He shook his head. "I don't suppose you could. In any case, you mustn't try. It is against orders." "Whose orders?" she asked quickly. "Your husband's," he answered. "His last words to me were that I was on no account to let you go near him." "Oh, why?" she protested. "And I might be able to help." "It isn't at all likely," he said. "And he's not a very pretty thing to look at." "As if that matters!" she exclaimed. "Well, it does matter, because I don't want to have you in hysterics, as much for my own sake as for yours." He smiled a little. "Also, if Mercer finds he has been disobeyed it will make him savage again, and perhaps I shall be the next victim." "He would never touch you!" she exclaimed. "He might. Why shouldn't he?" "He never would!" she reiterat
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133  
134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Mercer
 

Curtis

 

exclaimed

 
orders
 

husband

 

persuade

 

Beelzebub

 

Western

 

prejudices

 

wonderfully


victim

 
shouldn
 

reiterat

 
looked
 
suddenly
 

kindly

 

offend

 

suppose

 

matters

 

pretty


matter

 

smiled

 

hysterics

 

protested

 

quickly

 
anxiously
 

answered

 

savage

 

account

 

disobeyed


personal

 

occasionally

 
hammering
 

shoulders

 

horses

 

neglect

 

questioned

 

mother

 

property

 

animal


brought
 
shrugged
 

precisely

 

nature

 

nervous

 
picked
 

cheering

 
drench
 
moment
 

scared