The man turned toward her again, but before he had advanced many inches, she seemed to realize the necessity for immediate action, knowing but too well that his next attempt would not be attended with failure.
Hastily she laid Dick in an old ragged chair and placed herself before it. With cold defiance she lifted her handsome head.
"Now, Ben Mauprat," she cried, her voice ringing out with clear determination, "I am only a weak girl, but I am determined that you shall not touch that boy, and if you do, it shall be over my dead body. You may not know it, but I was never one to threaten uselessly. There is nothing in life that makes it valuable to me, therefore there is no reason why I should not keep my word. But for your own sake listen to me a moment. I have sent Liz out of the room. It will be utterly useless for you to attempt to find her, but if you harm me, she will hand you over to the police within ten minutes. You will not have a possible chance of escape. She is determined that she will save the life of her child, and she knows that upon mine his depends. Now, Ben, listen to reason! You say that you have a purpose to accomplish. You destroy your chance of doing it, and send yourself to the gallows."
She paused, her strength almost deserting her. She was trembling in every limb, but there was little evidence of weakness about her. She seemed like a marble statue imbued with life and unchangeable resolution.
"I shall not send myself to the gallows!" he exclaimed, his eyes blood-shot, either from the blow on the head, or his rage, Leonie could not quite determine which. "I am going to give that boy the beating that I have promised him. I am going to give you one for your interference in my affairs, and then after that I shall settle with Liz, and before I am through with her she will wish she had never been born. Do you understand that, young woman?"
"I understand that you are a very foolish man who are risking your own neck to gratify a miserable spirit of revenge. Ben, there was a time when you were my mother's husband. Because of that connection with one who would have been dear to me had I been old enough to know her, and who was the one sacred thought of all my young life, I plead with you to spare yourself the shame of dying upon the scaffold!"
"You are talking like an idiot. I am a fool that I have listened to you at all, but I am through now. Stand from before that boy! I shall settle with him first and you may come after."
"I will not."
"What, defiance?"
"Anything that you choose to call it, but I say determination. You shall not touch him!"