How he hated her! How he would have liked to bruise the sweet, upturned face, marking the white cheeks with the impressions of his fists! But he dared not. She would run away again--and to Lem he had given the opportunity to drag her to fathomless depths.
Fledra misread his thoughts, and said quickly: "I wouldn't care if you beat me every day, Pappy Lon--only let me stay. I'll work for my board. And won't you tell me about the other woman--I don't mean my mother."
Then a diabolical thought flashed into the man's mind. He, too, could make her suffer, even before she went to Lem. A smile twisted his lips, and he said slowly: "Yer mother ain't dead, Flea."
"Not dead!"
"Nope, she ain't dead."
"Then where is she?"
"None of yer business!"
Fledra clenched her hands and paled in terror. A mother somewhere living in the world, a woman who, if she knew, would not let her be sacrificed, who would save her from Lem, and from her father, too!
"Lon, Lon!" she cried, springing forward in desperation. "Do you know where she is? I want to know, too."
He flung her away, a grunt of satisfaction coming from his throat.
"And I ain't yer daddy, nuther."
"Then you're not Flukey's father, either?" she whispered.
"Nope; yer pappy and mammy both be livin' and waitin' fer ye. They've been lookin' fer ye fer years--and yet they'll never git ye. Do ye hear, Flea? I hate 'em both so that I could kill ye--I could tear yer throat open with these!" The squatter put his strong, crooked fingers in the girl's face.
A sudden resolution pumped the blood to the girl's cheeks.
"I'm not going to stay here!" was all she said.
Lon lifted his fist and stood up.
"Where ye goin'?"
"Back to Tarrytown."
She was standing close to him, her blazing eyes daring him to strike her.
"What about Flukey?"
"You couldn't have him, either, if--if he isn't yours."
Lon walked to the door and opened it.
"Scoot if ye want to--I don't care. But ye'll remember that I'll kill that sick kid, Fluke, and Lem'll put an end to the Tarrytown duffer what loves ye. I hate him, too!"
Fledra dropped to the floor as if he had struck her.
For some moments her senses were gone, and she opened her eyes only when Lon, vaguely alarmed, threw water in her face.