ut, if you ever breathe it to
anyone, or come round here again, I shall certainly kill you!"

The thoughts began to scurry wildly in Scraggy's head. Everett's threat
to kill her had not penetrated the demented brain, and his rough
handling had been her only fright. She could think of nothing but that
Lem was waiting for them at the scow.

She dragged herself away from Everett, and with a torn skirt wiped her
ghastly face. She dropped the rag to grope dazedly for the cat, and
whispered:

"Ye can do anything ye want to with yer ole mammy, if ye'll come back
with me to Ithaca!"

"Ithaca, Ithaca!" Everett repeated dazedly. "Was that child you spoke of
born in Ithaca?"

"Yep, on Cayuga Lake."

"Get up, get up, or I'll--I'll--" His voice came faintly to Screech Owl,
and she moaned.

The man's mind went back to his Cornell days when he had been considered
one of the richest boys in the university. His sudden degradation, the
falling of his family air-castles, made him double his fists--and with
his blow Scraggy dropped into a motionless heap.

His bloodshot eyes took in her prostrate form, guarded by the fluffed
black cat, and his one thought was to kill her--to obliterate her
entirely from his life. He stepped nearer, and Black Pussy's ferocious
yowl was the only remonstrance as he stirred Scraggy roughly with his
foot.

The thought that her boy did not want to go with her coursed slowly
through the woman's brain. She knew that without him Lem would not
receive her. She longed for the warmth of the homely scow; she wanted
Lem and the boy--oh, how she wanted them both! She half-rose and lunged
forward. Brimbecomb's next blow fell upon her upturned face, stunning
her as she would have made a final appeal. The woman fell to the floor
unconscious, and Everett kicked Black Pussy into the hall. There was a
snarling scramble, and when he opened the front door the cross-eyed cat
bounded out into the night.

Everett returned hastily to the drawing-room after a covert search of
the hall for disturbers. In the doorway he hovered an instant, and then
advanced quickly to the figure on the floor. Lifting the limp woman, he
bore her out of the house and down the slushy steps. With strength that
had come through the madness of his new knowledge, he threw the body
over into the graveyard and bounded after it. Once more then he took
Scraggy up, and, stumbling frequently in the half-light, carried her to
the upper end of the cemet