"Never again. I have had some trouble to find you, but you are mine now for ever—or at least"—and the snarl of the beast was in his voice—"for as long as I want you."
She resisted him, striving to escape that ever-tightening arm.
"No!" she cried in an agony. "No! No! No!"
His hold became a vice-like grip. Without a word he forced her back with him along the way she had come. She limped as she went, and he noted it with a terrible smile.
"It would have been better if you hadn't run away," he said.
"Oh, do let me go!" she begged again through her white lips. "Why do you persecute me like this? I have never done you any harm."
"Except laugh at me," he answered. "But you will never do that again, at least."
And then, finding her weight upon him, he stopped and lifted her in his arms.
She covered her face with her hands, and he laughed above her head.
"It is a dangerous amusement," he said, "to laugh at Dinghra. There are not many who dare. There is not one who goes unpunished."