This scene, Peggy felt, was real, and again she tried to scream.
The effort was successful, though the sound was not loud. One of the men turned, and she knew him.
"Ben," she said in an awed, scared voice, "what in God's name are you doing?"
"Killin' a snake!" he returned sullenly.
"Dale?" she inquired wildly. Her hands were clasped, the fingers working, twisting and untwisting.
"Maison," he told her, his face dark with passion.
"Because of me! O, Ben! Maison has done nothing to me. It was Dale, Ben—Dale came to our place and attacked me. I felt him carrying me—taking me somewhere. This—this place——"
"Is Maison's rooms," Ben told her. In his eyes was a new passion; he knelt beside the bed and stroked the girl's hair.
"Dale, you said—Dale. Dale hurt you? How?"
She told him, and he got up, a cold smile on his face.