THE STEADFAST HEART
ing, could not, with his dulled, stunted, frozen mind, achieve to the heights of imagination. To him was nothing but stark actuality. She continued.
“There are robbers in Michigan as desperate as any in Missouri,” she confided to him. “They’re cruel…. When they rob they leave nobody alive to tell the tale…. They kill you in awful ways… when you live far from neighbors as we do—and nobody can hear your screams….” She paused again, and then pounced upon the next words with awful enjoyment., “Sometime they’ll come here—to this house…. We’ll hear them prowl about—and then they’ll rap on the door like this!” She shot the last word at Angus fiercely and illustrated with her knuckles on the table top…. Angus uttered a squeal of terror.
“They’ll rap like this with the hilt of a big knife—and then—and then—what will we do?”
With parched tongue Angus tried to moisten his livid lips; he could not have spoken to save his life.
“They may come to-night—with masks over their faces…. Maybe they’re on their way—after your father’s money…. We—we must defend ourselves. We must be ready.” Again a pause before she almost screamed the words,
17
