Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/246

  continued to approach—at an angle—craft ily, and still the hound slid away in that peculiar manner, his lustrous brown eyes fastened on the man in an agony of doubt and dread, which seemed to partly paralyze his movements. Deshay began to wheedle, to whine, to talk 'baby-talk' of the 'nice-doggy' type, and he actually hid the knife as he might if about to murder a man instead of a dog! Such a spectacle, my friend! this gaunt, savage, bloodshot, hairy, human animal, far more of a beast in all effect than the sad-eyed dog who had for days prolonged his worthless life—this bloodthirsty, literally bloodthirsty human hyena, crazed at feeling his wretched, life slipping through his weakening grip, slinking along that beach in the bright, dewy morning, talking baby talk to the hound—making a disgusting exhibition of his craven soul, when he might have been waiting for death with the dignity of a gentleman!

"Still he slunk and the dog slunk before him, his hair bristling less in fear than [ 230 ]