She had passed beyond
tears and pleading and crying out. It was given Kendric then to learn
that when the crisis had come it found in the girl's heart a courage to
sustain her. Her face was set, her attitude was no longer cringing.
In such tender breasts as Betty's have beat the steady hearts of
martyrs.
When she saw Jim Kendric and Zoraida standing before her she stared
incredulously. She was in a daze. Her first wild thought, reflecting
itself unmistakably in her wide eyes, was that they had come to taunt
her, he and she side by side. Then her faltering gaze left Zoraida and
ignored her and went, full of earnest questioning, to Jim's face.
Suddenly, at what she saw there, the red blood of joyousness ran into
Betty's cheeks. At moments like this it is with few words or none at
all that perfect understanding comes. In a flash his look had told her
all that it would require many fumbling spoken words to repeat one-half
so eloquently.
The puma had sprung to its feet but stood its ground. The murderous
eyes were everywhere at once, on Betty, on Jim, on Zoraida, most of all
on Betty; the quivering nostrils widened and sniffed; the tawny throat
shook with a series of low growls. Jim's foot stirred; the cat's teeth
came together with a snap.
With little wish as Kendric had to create a disturbance just now, it
was beyond his power to withhold his hand as he saw Betty draw back
against the walls of her cage.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245