"Is it fatal, Dan?" she asked. "Is there no hope for Bart?"
There was no answer from Barry, and she attempted to raise the fallen,
lifeless head of the animal; but instantly a strong arm darted out and
brushed her hands away. Those hands fell idly at her sides and her head
went back as though she had been struck across the face. She found
herself looking up into the angry eyes of Randall Byrne. He reached down
and raised her to her feet; there was no colour in her face, no life in
her limbs.
"There's nothing more to be done here, apparently," said the doctor
coldly. "Suppose we take your father and go back to the house."
She made neither assent nor dissent. Dan Barry had finished a swift,
deft bandage and stopped the bleeding of the dog's wounds. Now he raised
his head and his glance slipped rapidly over the faces of the doctor and
the girl and rested on Buck Daniels. There was no flash of kindly
thanks, no word of recognition. His right hand raised to his cheek, and
rested there, and in his eyes came that flare of yellow hate. Buck
Daniels shrank back until he was lost in the crowd. Then he turned and
stumbled back towards the house.
Instantly, Barry began to work at expanding and depressing the lungs of
the huge animal as he might have worked to bring a man back to life.
"Watch him!" whispered the doctor to Kate Cumberland. "He is closer to
that dog--that wolf, it looks like--than he has ever been to any human
being!"
She would not answer, but she turned her head quickly away from the man
and his beast.
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