"Get over your fright. Listen, Asticot, I'm not going to hurt you. But you've got to answer me. Come, compose yourself——" He relaxed his grasp on the coat collar and stepped aside. "Come, Asticot; tell me why I find you here in Saïs?"
"M'sieu'——"
"Yes, go on. Just tell me the truth. I'm not going to beat you."
"M'sieu' will not believe me—God knows I do not know how to explain it to myself—but since that frightful beating bestowed upon me I do not know how to get along without the protection of M'sieu'——"
"What do you mean?"
"I am afraid! I do not know why. I desire to be taken under the patronage of him I fear. C'est plus fort que moi. Tenez, M'sieu', like a dog owned by nobody I once ran about at random, and not afraid, until caught and nearly killed by M'sieu'. And now I desire to be his. It is natural for me to follow him—even though I remain afraid of him, even risking his anger and another beating——"
"Asticot!"
"M'sieu'?"
"Do you nourish any agreeable dreams that you may one day live to insert your knife in my back?"
The sheer astonishment in the young ruffian's visage was sufficient answer for Warner. He realized then that this yellow mongrel would never again try to bite—that he might collapse and succumb under violence, but never again would he twist and try to mangle the hand of punishment which once had broken him so mercilessly.