Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/265

248 too hard, and, losing her balance, Moti fell. As she fell, her head struck the edge of the wooden box where the puppies were kept, and she uttered a piercing scream. Bobby was terrified at what he had done, and was stooping to her, when Dilâl came swiftly in at the stable door. Bobby never knew exactly what happened after that. He had an impression of a storm passing over him, and leaving him with his ears ringing, and of Dilâl, like a white lightning flash, passing out of the place with the little girl gathered to his breast.

The boy sat stupidly where he had dropped under Dilâl's hand, rubbing his forehead and trying to remember just what had occurred.

Presently, steps came along the yard outside, and the groom came into the stable and began to loose one of the horses.

"What's that for?" asked Bobby with reviving interest in life.