Pointing to a large, half-decayed elm branch, lying at a little distance, he tightened his grasp on the collar, and said to the still trembling girl: 

“Bring me that stick, yonder.”

Edna complied, and there ensued a scene of cursing, thrashing, and howling, that absolutely sickened her.  The dog writhed, leaped, whined, and snarled; but the iron hold was not relaxed, and the face of the master rivaled in rage that of the brute, which seemed as ferocious as the hounds of Gian Maria Visconti, fed with human flesh, by Squarcia Giramo.  Distressed by the severity and duration of the punishment, and without pausing to reflect, or to remember Hagar’s warning, Edna interposed: 

“Oh! please don’t whip him any more!  It is cruel to beat him so!”

Probably he did not hear her, and the blows fell thicker than before.  She drew near, and, as the merciless arm was raised to strike, she seized it with both hands, and swung on with her whole weight, repeating her words.  If one of his meek, frightened sheep had sprung at his throat to throttle him, Mr. Murray would not have been more astounded.  He shook her off, threw her from him, but she carried the stick in her grasp.  “D—­n you! how dare you interfere!  What is it to you if I cut his throat, which I mean to do!”

“That will be cruel and sinful, for he does not know it is wrong; and besides, he did not bite me.”

She spoke resolutely, and for the first time ventured to look straight into his flashing eyes.

“Did not bite you!  Did not he worry down and mangle one of my finest Southdowns?  It would serve you right for your impertinent meddling, if I let him tear you limb from limb!”

“He knows no better,” she answered, firmly.

“Then, by G-d, I will teach him!  Hand me that stick!”

“Oh! please, Mr. Murray!  You have nearly put out one of his eyes already!”

“Give me the stick, I tell you, or I—­”

He did not finish the threat, but held out his hand with a peremptory gesture.

Edna gave one swift glance around, saw that there were no other branches within reach, saw too that the dog’s face was swelling and bleeding from its bruises, and, bending the stick across her knee, she snapped it into three pieces, which she threw as far as her strength would permit.  There was a brief pause, broken only by the piteous howling of the suffering creature, and, as she began to realize what she had done, Edna’s face reddened, and she put her hands over her eyes to shut out the vision of the enraged man, who was absolutely dumb with indignant astonishment.  Presently a sneering laugh caused her to look through her fingers, and she saw “Ali,” the dog, now released, fawning and whining at his master’s feet.

“Aha!  The way of all natures, human as well as brute.  Pet and fondle and pamper them, they turn under your caressing hand and bite you; but bruise and trample them, and instantly they are on their knees licking the feet that kicked them.  Begone! you bloodthirsty devil!  I’ll settle the account at the kennel.  Buffon is a fool, and Pennant was right after all.  The blood of the jackal pricks up your ears.”