With a single stride he reached Leonie.
In another instant it is not to be doubted that he would have snatched the already dying child from her arms, but the desperate mother again interfered.
She did not fall, but maddened by her fear for the little, unfortunate creature in which was centered her only love, her only happiness, she seized a stick of wood that lay near the stove on the floor, and as Ben would have snatched the child from its helpless protector, she brought the cudgel down upon the back of his head with a force that, for a woman of her build, was supernatural.
Without a word or even a moan he fell forward upon his face and lay there like one dead.
A look of horror, somewhat tempered with relief, passed over Leonie's face.
But Liz seemed suddenly converted into a maniac.
A shrill laugh fell from her lips, but almost before it reached the atmosphere, it was changed to a cry.
She flung herself upon her knees before the boy and took his little, burning hand in hers, pressing her hot lips upon it wildly.
"I have killed him!" she whispered, hoarsely. "Do you hear that, my darling? I have killed him, and in a moment they will come to take your mother away to hang her. But you must not fret, Dick. I knew that it would come sooner or later, and it has come now, but you must not let it worry you, my darling. Oh, Dick! Dick! Dick!"
The words faded into a sob that was terrible.