But again he shook her, till it seemed that her little limbs would be rent apart; and her touching words of pleading ended in inarticulate murmurings. When he had fairly exhausted himself by this brutal exhibition of passion, he stopped, and holding her before him, as in a vice, said,
“Tell the truth, or I’ll break every bone in your body. You kept the dog quiet while she went off.”
“Oh! please, don’t. You hurt me so,” answered the child, endeavoring, with one of her little hands, to remove his iron grasp, which was bruising her arm.
“Answer me,” yelled the monster, purple with rage, and shaking the friendless orphan again.
The child would not reply falsely; she, therefore, said nothing.
“What! You won’t speak?” he cried, perfectly beside himself and; he struck her a blow over the head, which brought the blood gushing from her ears and nose. She fell, as if dead, at his feet.
His comrades had witnessed this scene, and though hardened to most descriptions of crime, could not longer endure his brutality. Indeed, Bill and another would have interfered before, if the lieutenant had not held them back, telling them it was Arrison’s niece, and that “he had a right to do as he pleased with her.” But now even this personage overcame his scruples.
“Come, come, Captain,” he said, picking up the child, “we’d better be off. What’s done can’t be helped. She’s but a poor, weak thing, anyhow; and who knows that the dog gave the alarm at all?”
At first Arrison scowled at this interference, but the faces of his followers showed him that the lieutenant had spoken the will of the majority. So, resolving to punish her to his heart’s content at a future period, he bade her “go and wash her face, and stop crying, or he’d give her something to cry for,” and turned away.
It took but a few minutes longer to complete the preparations for the pursuit. The refugees hastily swallowed some food, and drained each a deep draught of Jamaica, after which, with the bloodhound for their guide, they began the search. The dog struck the trail immediately, and went off in full chorus: and in a little while the pursuers were out of sight.