"Singly, in pairs, or the whole damned pack!"
"Mr. Cardigan!"
He turned. Colonel Pennington's breath had been knocked out of his
body by the impact of his semi-conscious woods-boss, and he lay
inert, gasping like a hooked fish. Beside him Shirley Sumner was
kneeling, her hands clasping her uncle's, but with her violet eyes
blazing fiercely on Bryce Cardigan.
"How dare you?" she cried. "You coward! To hurt my uncle!"
He gazed at her a moment, fiercely, defiantly, his chest rising and
falling from his recent exertions, his knotted fists gory with the
blood of his enemy. Then the light of battle died, and he hung his
head. "I'm sorry," he murmured, "not for his sake, but yours. I
didn't know you were here. I forgot--myself."
"I'll never speak to you again so long as I live," she burst out
passionately.
He advanced a step and stood gazing down upon her. Her angry glance
met his unflinchingly; and presently for him the light went out of
the world.
"Very well," he murmured. "Good-bye." And with bowed head he turned
and made off through the green timber toward his own logging-camp
five miles distant.
CHAPTER XVI
With the descent upon his breast of the limp body of his big woods-
bully, Colonel Pennington had been struck to earth as effectively as
if a fair-sized tree had fallen on him.
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