The cruel look on her face and the fire in her eyes frightened the dwarf. To him, she seemed almost insane.
"What'd ye tell 'em you'd do, Tess? Air you goin' to lick 'er?"
"I guess so. I didn't tell 'em for sure what I'd do."
She dropped the whip on a table and walked across the room to the window where she stood looking out into the night with unseeing eyes. Then, whirling on Andy, she clenched her fists and burst forth.
"She's the only thing Waldstricker loves! If I hurt her, don't I hurt him?"
"Sure, dear," the little man acquiesced. "Sure, it'd make 'im ... think a bit ... mebbe."
Elsie stirred uneasily, making the chair rock back and forth.
"Baby's hungry," she whimpered.
Tess threw off her wraps and flung out of the room. In the kitchen she stirred the fire and heated some milk and broke bread into it.
While she was gone, the dwarf made up his mind that now, if ever, he must prove the power of the faith Tess'd taught him. Motionless, but watching the baby, he reviewed the proofs he'd had in the shack and during his years with Tessibel on the hill. Surely, the hands stronger'n Waldstricker's had lost none of their protective power! So absorbed did he become, he hardly noticed when the girl came back, but he heard her say to Elsie,