Page:Max Brand--The Seventh Man.djvu/242

228 For an instant Joan stood free, wavering, and her eyes held steadily upon her mother bright with nothing but fear and strangeness. Then something melted in her little round face, she sighed.

“Munner!” and stole a pace closer. A moment later Kate sat with Joan in her arms, rocking to and fro and weeping.

“What's happened?” gasped Haines to Daniels. “What's happened to the kid?”

“Don't talk,” answered Buck, his face gray as that of Kate. “It's Dan's blood.”

He drew a great breath.

“Did you see her try to—to bite me while I was holdin' her?”

Kate had started to her feet, holding Joan in one arm and dashing away her tears with the free hand. All weakness was gone from her.

“Hurry!” she commanded. “We haven't any time to lose. Buck, come here! No, Lee, you're stronger. Honey, this is your Uncle Lee. He'll take care of you; he won't hurt you. Will you go to him?”

Joan shrank away while she examined him, but the instincts of a child move with thrice the speed of a mature person's judgment; she read the kindly honesty which breathed from every line of Haines' face, and held out her arms to him.

Then they started down the slope for the horses, running wildly, for the moment they turned their backs on the cave the same thought was in the mind of each,