“What’s come over you, you little fool?” he cried fiercely. “What is it? Now, by hell! whatever it is, you shall––you shall kiss me.”
With a sudden exertion of his great strength he crushed her face to his, and the next instant flung her from him with a fierce cry of pain and rage.
“You––!” he shouted, as she fell in a heap against the wall.
The blood was streaming from his cheek where her strong teeth had bitten deep into the flesh. His hand went up to the mauled flesh, and murder glared out of his eyes as he contemplated her huddled figure lying motionless where he had flung her. And for one second it looked as though he intended to complete the work he had begun, and kill her where she lay, in the same manner in which he had treated the luckless Conroy.
He stared insanely at her for some moments. Then a change came over him, and he turned to the door.
“When I come back, my girl! When I come back!” he muttered threateningly.
At the door he paused and looked back. But his look was mercifully hidden from his victim by unconsciousness.