Page:Max Brand--The Seventh Man.djvu/318



“And so,” said Lee Haines, when he joined Buck Daniels in the living-room, “there goes our reinforcements. That whole crew will scatter like dead leaves when Barry breezes in. It looks to me”

“Shut up!” cut in Daniels. “Shut up!”

His dark, homely face turned to the larger man with a singular expression of awe. He whispered: “D'you hear? She's in the next room whippin' Joan for runnin' away, and never a yap out of the kid!”

He held up a lean finger for caution and then Haines heard the sound of the willow switch. It stopped.

“If you run away again,” warned Kate, her voice pitched high and trembling, “munner will whip harder, and put you in a dark place for a long, long time.”

Still there was not a sound of the child's voice, not even the pulse of stifled weeping. Presently the door opened and Kate stood there.

“Go out in the kitchen and tell Li to give you breakfast. Naughty girls can't eat with munner.”

Through the door came Joan, her little round face perfectly white, perfectly expressionless. She did not cringe, passing her mother; she walked steadily across 304