As he started back, she laid a
detaining hand on his arm. "I'd much prefer to go myself; Lauzanne
distrusts strangers and might make trouble."
As the girl entered the stable, Mortimer sauntered on in the direction
Mike had gone.
Allis opened the door of Lauzanne's stall, passed in, and searched in
the straw for the lost glove.
X
The noise of strife in Diablo's box had increased. There came the sound
of blows on the horse's ribs; a muttered oath, and suddenly a scream of
terror from the boy, drowned in an instant by the ferocious battlecry of
the enraged stallion. Mortimer, thirty yards away, heard it, and felt
his heart stand still; he had never heard anything so demoniac in his
life. He turned in such haste that his foot slipped on the frozen
earth, and he fell heavily.
At the first sound of blows Allis had started angrily toward Diablo's
box. She was at the door when Shandy's cry of terror rang out. For an
instant the girl hesitated; what she saw was enough to make a strong man
quail. The black stallion was loose; with crunching jaws he had
fastened on the arm of Shandy, in the corner of the stall, and was
trying to pull the boy down that he might trample him to death.
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