Geraldine cried out, and springing forward grasped his arm. He paused at the first voluntary touch he had ever received from her.
"Don't you dare strike that boy!" she exclaimed breathlessly.
Carder looked down at the white horror in her face and in her shining eyes.
"I'm goin' to get the truth out of him," he said, his mouth twitching. "You go up to the house."
"I will not go up to the house! Put down that whip! If you strike Pete, I'll kill myself." She finished speaking, more slowly, and Rufus, looking down into her strangely changed look, became uneasy.
"I guess not," he said. "You go up to the house."
"I mean it," declared Geraldine in a low tone. "What have I to live for! My own father, the only one on earth I had to love, has sold me to a man who has shown himself a ruffian. One thing you have no power over is my life, and what have I now to live for!"
Carder dropped the whip. There was no doubt of her sincerity.
"Now, Geraldine, calm down," he said, anxiety sounding through his bravado. "I'm sorry I had to give you that shock about Dick; but it was your own high-headed attitude that made it necessary. Calm down now. I won't touch Pete. What was it, boy," he went on, addressing the dwarf in his usual tone—"What did that man ask you?"
"The shortest way to Keefe," repeated the dwarf. His eyes were fixed dully on Geraldine, but his heart was thumping. She had said she would kill herself if his master struck him.