Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/220

 'Are you alone?' he said, disregarding. 'If you lie I will tear you with my teeth, and kill you, so.'

'Why should I lie?'

'To hunt me down.'

'I would not help them to hunt you; not more than I would to hunt the boar.'

He stared at her with brooding, bloodshot eyes that glowed in the gloom like a jackal's.

'Was I drowning, do you say?'

'Yes, you were drowning: who are you?'

He ground his teeth that flashed white like an angry dog's.

'Who? Who? I am nothing. I have no name; I am numbered like a beast of burden. I am dead and buried. But if I had a knife!—if I had a knife!'

'What would you do?'

'I should be a man once more. To have a knife and a gun, that is to be a man.'

His head sank on his chest; he was stupid, and his mind began to wander a little; he had been in the water for hours; he was numb and felt strange. He stared at her with reddened eyes that were black and sombre save for the flame that could light up in them.