Page:Max Brand--The Seventh Man.djvu/220

206 sheets, and if you wake up in the night she'll be there to talk to you. And you'll have pretty little dresses with all kinds of colors on 'em, most like. Joan, do you want to go to munner, or stay here with me?”

Perhaps the speech was rather long for Joan to follow, but the conclusion was plain enough; and there was Kate, she also upon one knee and her arms stretched out.

“Joan, my baby, my darling!”

“Munner!” whispered the child and ran towards her.

A growl came up in the throat of Black Bart and then sank away into a whine; Joan stopped short, and turned her head.

“Joan!” cried Kate.

Anguish made her voice loud, and from the loudness Joan shrank, for there was never a harsh sound in the cave except the growl of Bart warning away danger. She turned quite around and there stood Daddy Dan, perfectly erect, quite indifferent, to all seeming, as to her choice. She went to him with a rush and caught at his hands.

“Oh, Daddy Dan, I don't want to go. Don't you want Joan?”

He laid a hand upon her head, and she felt the tremor of his fingers; the wolf-dog lay down at her feet and looked up in her face; Satan, from the shadows beyond, whinnied again.

After that there was not a word spoken, for Kate