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A light step crossed the outer room, with something peculiar in its lightness, as if the heel were not touching the floor, with the effect of the padded fall of the feet of some great cat; there was both softness and the sense of weight. First the wolf-dog pricked his ears and turned towards the door, the pudgy fist closed convulsively over Vic's thumb, and then his rescuer stood in the entrance.

“Hello, partner,” called Vic. “I got company, you see. The door blew open and I asked your little girl in.”

“I told you not to come here,” said the other. Vic felt the child tremble, but there was no burst of excuses.

“She didn't want to come,” he urged. “But I kep' on askin' her.”

The emotionless eye of “Daddy Dan” held upon Joan. “I told you not to come,” he said. Joan swallowed in mute agony, and the wolf-dog slipped to the side of the master and licked his hand as though in dumb intercession. The blood ran coldly in the veins of Gregg, as if he saw a fist raised to strike the little girl. 57