He waited, gayly expectant, for more.

He got it.
There was a second rackety explosion and a second puff of lightning from the man's out-flung hand.

But, this time, something like a red-hot whip-lash smote Lad with horribly agonizing force athwart the right hip.
The man had done this,--the man whom Laddie had thought so friendly and playful! He had not done it by accident.

For his hand had been out-flung directly at the pup, just as once had been the arm of the kennelman, back at Lad's birthplace, in beating a disobedient mongrel.

It was the only beating Lad had ever seen.