Leaping from his horse, Mr. Murray strode up, and with a quick movement seized the heavy brass collar of the savage creature, hurled him back on his haunches, and held him thus, giving vent the while to a volley of oaths.
Pointing to a large, half-decayed elm branch, lying at a little distance, he tightened his grasp on the collar, and said to the still trembling girl:
"Bring me that stick, yonder."
Edna complied, and there ensued a scene of cursing, thrashing, and howling, that absolutely sickened her. The dog writhed, leaped, whined, and snarled; but the iron hold was not relaxed, and the face of the master rivaled in rage that of the brute, which seemed as ferocious as the hounds of Gian Maria Visconti, fed with human flesh, by Squarcia Giramo. Distressed by the severity and duration of the punishment, and without pausing to reflect, or to remember Hagar's warning, Edna interposed:
"Oh! please don't whip him any more! It is cruel to beat him so!"
Probably he did not hear her, and the blows fell thicker than before. She drew near, and, as the merciless arm was raised to strike, she seized it with both hands, and swung on with her whole weight, repeating her words. If one of his meek, frightened sheep had sprung at his throat to throttle him, Mr. Murray would not have been more astounded. He shook her off, threw her from him, but she carried the stick in her grasp. "D—n you! how dare you interfere! What is it to you if I cut his throat, which I mean to do!"
"That will be cruel and sinful, for he does not know it is wrong; and besides, he did not bite me."
She spoke resolutely, and for the first time ventured to look straight into his flashing eyes.
"Did not bite you! Did not he worry down and mangle one of my finest
Southdowns? It would serve you right for your impertinent meddling, if
I let him tear you limb from limb!"
"He knows no better," she answered, firmly.