She looked at them all in turn, all except the one she was talking to. Walter felt that he was being forgotten, or overlooked. This only increased his latent courage and made him burn with a desire to be numbered with the knighthood of the house.
“Yes, if there’s nobody here who’s not afraid——”
“I’m not afraid!”
All but Juffrouw Laps were surprised. She was a good psychologist, and had not expected anything else. It was her part, however, to pretend to be as much surprised as any of the rest.
“You?”
“You, Walter?”
“Boy, are you crazy? You?”
“Yes, I. I’m not afraid; not if there were ten in the closet and a hundred under the bed!”
A little Luther! But with a difference. Luther had a God in whom he felt he could trust—reinforced by a few grand-dukes. Walter, without any grand-dukes, was ready to enter the field against a God who was allowing any number of murderers to take shelter under the roof and bed of Juffrouw Laps.
“Boy!”