"Yes," he said; and then he paused, eyeing her in doubt if he could trust her.

At last, "It is, but, if you dared do it, I know how I could draw his teeth! How I could"-- with the cruel grin of the coward--"squeeze him! squeeze him!" and he went through the act with his nervous, shaking fingers.

"I could hold him like that! I could hold him powerless as the dog that would bite and dare not!" She stared at him.

"You ?" she said; it was hard to say whether incredulity or scorn were written more plainly on her face.

"You ?" "I! I!" he replied, with the same gesture of holding something.