Letting Lad's head gently down to the floor, she slipped away.
To the barn she went, ignorant that her father had not returned to the orchard.

She wanted to get herself into a more courageous frame of mind before meeting Ruloff.

By experience she judged he would make her pay, and pay dear, for the fright the collie had given him.
Into the barn she ran, shutting fast its side door behind her.

Then, midway across the dusky hay-strewn space, she came to a gasping stop.
Ruloff had risen from a box on the corner, had set down his lunch pail, moved between her and the door and yanked off his brass-buckled belt.
The child was trapped.

Here there was no earthly chance for escape.
Here, too, thanks to the closed door, Laddie could not come to her aid.
In palsied dread, she stood shaking and sobbing; as the man walked silently toward her.
Ruloff's flat face widened in a grin of anticipation.