Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/340

330 said; and then some one spoke behind her sneeringly,—

"A pretty scene, indeed, to come upon."

They turned, and faced her husband.

Malachy threw himself before the lion-tamer and caught him by his coat. He was not a small man, yet did not come much over the other's shoulder.

"You have struck her," he said hoarsely, between his teeth. "You cowardly hound! you shall take the blow back from me."

The other forced him from him, and raised his whip. "I shall cut you in two if you lay a hand upon me."

Nora, without thinking of anything, only to separate them, flung herself between them, and the blow fell across her shoulders, making her cry out. Her husband laughed when he saw where the blow fell.

"That comes of being in the wrong place," he said, striding out into the circus.

Nora heard the applause that greeted him, and missed Malachy from her side. She sprang up, frightened. Where had he gone? She suddenly came upon him in the shadow, an iron bar in his hands. He was creeping