“Was it you who struck me out there in the stable?”
“It surely was.”
“What had I done?”
A spasm of hate crossed the ferocious face.
“You hadn’t no business out there nor around here.”
“Maybe not,” Allan admitted. “Let me go and I’ll clear out.”
The words were greeted by a burst of laughter, so wild that Allan was suddenly convinced that he had to do with a wild man, a lunatic wholly irresponsible for his actions. The thought sent a deeper chill through him.
“Let me go,” he urged more gently. “I have done you no harm.”
“Ain’t you, though!” retorted his strange companion. “Well, you’ll never do nobody else no harm, neither.”
And without heeding the entreaties Allan sent after him, he went out and closed the door.