Then he glanced over her head, his horrified attention centered upon the group on the floor.
Scraggy looked up at him, still holding Lem and Everett.
"I'm glad ye comed, Mister. Can't ye help 'em any?"
For many minutes they worked in silence over the father and son. Once the brilliant eyes of Brimbecomb opened and flashed bewilderedly about the room, until he caught sight of Ann. A smile, sweet and winning, curved his lips. Then he lapsed into unconsciousness again.
"Oh, I want him to speak to me, Horace," moaned Ann, "only a little word!"
"Wait, Dear," said Horace. "We're doing all we can.... I believe that man over there is dead."
He made a motion as if to lean over the scowman; but Scraggy pushed him back.
"No, my Lemmy ain't dead," she wailed, "course he ain't dead!" She placed her lips close to the dying man's ear, and called, "Lemmy, Lemmy, this be Scraggy!"
The hooked arm moved a trifle, and then was still. The fingers of the left hand groped weakly about, and Scraggy, with a sob, lifted the arm and put it about her. Had the others in the room been mindful of the action, they would have seen the man's muscles tighten about the woman's thin neck. Then presently his arm loosened and he was dead.
Everett's eyes were open, and he was trying to speak.