United States or Iceland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Much as she dreaded the wrath of Cronk, much more did she fear Crabbe's eyes, when, half-covered with squinting lids, they pierced her like gimlets. Snatchet was her only comfort, and she lavished infinite affection upon him. Night crowded the day from over Cayuga, and still Fledra and Snatchet remained in the corner, near the top of the stairs.
As the door opened, she raised her eyes wonderingly; but when she saw a tall stranger she dropped them again someone had lost his way and needed Pappy Lon. Cronk looked up and, recognizing Vandecar, suddenly slid like a serpent around the hut wall until he was in touching distance of the girl. "Ye'd better not come any closer, Mister," he said darkly.
A dripping sweat broke from every pore in Lon's body, and drops of water rolled down his dark face. He groped about for another stick of wood, as if blind. "She was too young, too small, Lon Cronk, for the cross she had to bear." Lon threw up his head. "Jesus! what a blisterin' memory!" he said. His throat almost smothered the words.
"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. Cronk entered the scow sullenly and sat down.
"The bats be gone from my brain, Lem, and I want to tell ye somethin' 'bout Flea Flea Cronk and to tell ye that I be hungry." "What about Flea?" snapped Lem. "Ye're bein' hungry ain't nothin' to do with me. If ye got somethin' to tell me that I want to hear, lip it out, and then scoot; for I ain't no time to bother with ye. My time's precious, Scraggy see?"
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the narrow passage. The others looked down that filthy corridor and shuddered. "What a place!" muttered David Jenison. "Wot 'as Brad been up to to-night?" demanded Joey. Without changing his position, Dick Cronk, in as few words as possible, told them of Braddock's vigil.
Dennis also saw her expression, and could not disguise his admiration, but every moment he increasingly felt how desperately hard it would be to give her up, now that she seemed to realize his very ideal of womanhood. And Cronk, having satisfied the clamors of his appetite, began to be fascinated in his rough way with her grace and beauty.
"I don't believe you'll touch her while she is with me," said Horace hotly. "I shall send for the girl, and, if you are their father, then " "They can't go!" cried Ann. "I haven't said that they could go, Ann. I was just going to say to Mr. Cronk that if they wanted to go of course we couldn't keep them. Otherwise, there is a remedy for him."
The newspapers professed to be unable to secure a statement of any kind from the brother, Ernest Cronk, who was in jail as an accomplice, despite the vigorous protests of the principal figure in the case. The newspapers went into the history of the Cronk boys, from childhood up, devoting considerable space to the excellent reputation of the cripple and the unsavory record of the noted pickpocket.
Something of this kind occurred on the morning of the 10th. "Collince," said the Dutchman softly. "Don' wake op der odder vellers do no goot yoos now. I gone 'way roun' der liknum, und der bullock und der horse not dere. Notteen cronk, I hope. Mi's well com anodder trip?" I left my lair, and we walked out across the plain, followed by the faithful Pup.
Word Of The Day