A trim, straight figure she was, just rounding into young womanhood;
turning fifteen, in truth. Lithe and graceful, with the sinuous
development of a perfectly healthy young girl who has gone through the
expanding process without pausing at the awkward stage, due no doubt to
her life and training. Firm, well-rounded hips; a small waist, full
chest and perfect shoulders, straight, exquisitely modeled limbs and
high, arched insteps: perfect in girlhood, with promise of the divine
at the height of full womanhood.
The mother arose at once. She remembered that he was in their world.
"Come," she said to her daughter. They withdrew to the women's half of
the dressing-tent, leaving him to devour his feast alone. Slowly the
others, taking their cue, edged away. When next the clown approached
him, fresh from a merry whirl in the ring, the tray was on the mattress
at his side, every particle of food gone. The boy's face was in his
hands, his elbows on his knees.
"Well, you _was_ 'ungry," said the kindly voice. The boy looked up, his
eyelids heavy.
"I reckon I was almost asleep," he said. "I haven't slept much of late."
Suddenly it dawned on him that the clown was staring intently at his
face. With quick understanding he shrank back, but did not withdraw his
gaze from the eyes of the other.
"By jingo!" muttered the motley one. "You--you are the one they're
'unting for--all over the state. The reward bills! I remember now!"
The lad had risen. A look of abject misery and dread leaped in his eyes.
"Let me go!" he said, almost in a whisper, fiercely intense. "I'll get
out. I haven't done any harm to you. Don't keep me here a minute--"
"Then you _are_ the Jenison boy!" in open-mouthed wonder. "Well, I'll
be jiggered! Here! Don't bolt like that!"
"Let go of me!" cried the boy, striking at the hand that clutched his
arm. "I won't let them catch me! Let me go!"
"Keep your shirt on, my son," said the clown coolly. "Nobody's going to
'urt you 'ere. Just you remember that. I am not going to give you
up--leastwise, not just yet. So you murdered your grandfather, did you?
Well, I wouldn't 'ave took you to be that kind--"
"I didn't do it! I didn't do it!" There was piteous appeal in his wide
eyes. "I swear I didn't. They're trying to put it on me to save some
one else. Oh, please, don't keep me here. They--they are--they must be
here by this time, looking for me. Oh, if you knew how I've tried to
dodge them. They had bloodhounds last Saturday. Oh!" He covered his
face with his hands and shuddered as with a mighty chill.
Grinaldi eyed him speculatively.
"You say they're 'ere now? So close as that?" he demanded in a low
voice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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