“Shut up, ye little fool!” exclaimed the man, harshly. “You know where Sade is, then, I’ll be bound.”
“How do you know——?”
“Ha! ye jest the same as told me,” he returned, grinning suddenly and again snapping the whip. “You can tell me where that runaway’s gone.”
“I don’t know. Even if I did, I would not tell you, sir,” declared Ruth, recovering some of her natural courage now.
“Don’t ye sass me—nor don’t ye lie to me,” and this time he swung the cruel whip, until the long lash whipped around her skirts about at a level with her knees. It did not hurt her, but Ruth cringed and shrieked aloud again.
“Stop yer howling!” commanded Perkins. “Tell me about Sade Raby. Where’s she gone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Warn’t she right there in them bushes with you?”
“I shan’t tell you anything more,” declared Ruth.
“Ye won’t?”