CHAPTER XXII.

Like a bird that is magnetized into inactivity by the movements of a snake, Leonie sat and watched Ben Mauprat.

Slowly, and showing his teeth in a hideous manner that was peculiar to him, Ben continued to approach, until within a few feet of her he made a sudden spring.

How it was that she escaped him she could never have told, but she became conscious that she had leaped by him, and was standing a few feet away holding the child who was a heavy burden in spite of his being a physical wreck.

But she forgot it. She did not even remember in her fright that she had him in her arms, but stood there clasping him closely to her, panting with terror.

The man turned toward her again, but before he had advanced many inches, she seemed to realize the necessity for immediate action, knowing but too well that his next attempt would not be attended with failure.

Hastily she laid Dick in an old ragged chair and placed herself before it. With cold defiance she lifted her handsome head.

"Now, Ben Mauprat," she cried, her voice ringing out with clear determination, "I am only a weak girl, but I am determined that you shall not touch that boy, and if you do, it shall be over my dead body. You may not know it, but I was never one to threaten uselessly. There is nothing in life that makes it valuable to me, therefore there is no reason why I should not keep my word. But for your own sake listen to me a moment. I have sent Liz out of the room. It will be utterly useless for you to attempt to find her, but if you harm me, she will hand you over to the police within ten minutes. You will not have a possible chance of escape. She is determined that she will save the life of her child, and she knows that upon mine his depends. Now, Ben, listen to reason! You say that you have a purpose to accomplish. You destroy your chance of doing it, and send yourself to the gallows."

She paused, her strength almost deserting her. She was trembling in every limb, but there was little evidence of weakness about her. She seemed like a marble statue imbued with life and unchangeable resolution.

"I shall not send myself to the gallows!" he exclaimed, his eyes blood-shot, either from the blow on the head, or his rage, Leonie could not quite determine which. "I am going to give that boy the beating that I have promised him. I am going to give you one for your interference in my affairs, and then after that I shall settle with Liz, and before I am through with her she will wish she had never been born. Do you understand that, young woman?"

"I understand that you are a very foolish man who are risking your own neck to gratify a miserable spirit of revenge. Ben, there was a time when you were my mother's husband. Because of that connection with one who would have been dear to me had I been old enough to know her, and who was the one sacred thought of all my young life, I plead with you to spare yourself the shame of dying upon the scaffold!"

"You are talking like an idiot. I am a fool that I have listened to you at all, but I am through now. Stand from before that boy! I shall settle with him first and you may come after."

"I will not."

"What, defiance?"

"Anything that you choose to call it, but I say determination. You shall not touch him!"

"Once more, stand aside!"

"And again. I will not!"

"Then take the consequences!"

He strode toward her, his brutal face purple with passion, his heavy fist clinched as though to enforce obedience, but instead of thinking of the words that she had been speaking to him, Leonie had been making a plan of action.

She was too busy thinking how she was to save herself and the boy, whose life seemed to depend upon her, to wonder at the continued absence of Liz.

As she saw Ben coming to her, she sprung aside for the moment, and almost before he realized that she had moved, she was back in her place before Dick again, a broken pitcher filled with water, clasped firmly by the handle in her hand.

As the man approached her, she pitched the contents into his eyes.

With a growl of rage, Ben turned aside, but only for an instant.

With the water still dripping from his face and falling over his clothes, he made a desperate spring upon Leonie!

She lifted the pitcher, and was about to bring it down with all her force upon his head, when the door suddenly opened and Liz entered!

The woman took in the situation at a glance.

A low cry issued from her lips, and a single word. It was:

"Quick!"

A man in the blue uniform and brass buttons of a police officer sprung into the room.

With his fist poised in the air, Ben turned.

He understood what had happened, and Leonie's meaning.

He fell back with an awful oath.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, savagely. "This house is mine, and I command you to get out of it!"

"I am going to do so at once," answered the officer, serenely, "and you are going with me!"

"I think you will miss your reckoning in that!" answered Ben, bracing himself in a manner that the officer understood at once to mean fight.

The policeman lifted his club threateningly.

"I don't want to have to use any force with you, my man," he said calmly, but with every evidence of meaning precisely what he said; "but if I must do so, you will find that I know how to use a club with good effect. This woman has sworn out a warrant for your arrest. I have never been sent out yet for a man that I did not take him back with me, dead or alive, and I do not propose to make you an exception to the rule. My record shall remain unbroken. Now, are you ready to go with me quietly, or must I use force?"

"You can use whatever you please," replied Ben, looking over the man's shoulder at Liz; "but before you do it, I have a little debt to settle."

He paused for a moment as though considering, then spoke to Liz:

"So I owe this to you, do I?"

"It was to save Dick's life, Ben," answered the poor woman, hopelessly.

"Oh, was it? Well, I hope, as you have taken so much trouble to save it, you may enjoy it. You have played the devil with me, and I have never allowed any one to do that yet without giving them what they deserved. I am sorry that I have not time to at least allow you one prayer, but it is impossible on this occasion."

Almost before he had ceased speaking, he had drawn a revolver from his pocket, and pointing it at the woman's head, pulled the trigger.

Accustomed as he was to such scenes, the officer had not contemplated such an act upon the part of the man, but Leonie seemed to understand perfectly what was coming.

Perhaps it was the suggestion of fear, since cowardice often makes one more wary than the coolest bravery.

As the pistol was leveled, she threw out the pitcher that she held and struck the man's arm, sending it in an acute angle.

The bullet passed, perhaps, not two inches above Liz's head, but, as the smoke cleared away, Ben saw her standing there unharmed.

What he might have done to Leonie under the circumstances can better be imagined than described, but before he had an opportunity to allow his fiendishness swing, he was caught by the officer.

With a foul oath Ben turned upon him.

One blow from the revolver across the man's head cut the flesh until the blood streamed across his eyes, and the next instant an escape might have been effected that would have cost them all their lives, but that Leonie seized the piece of wood that had served Liz so well, and planted another blow upon the back of Mauprat's head.

It did not stun him, but brought him to his knees, giving the officer time to recover himself.

Before Ben had staggered to his feet, the "bracelets" were slipped over his wrists, and he found himself powerless.

Even then his efforts at escape did not cease. He made a leap in the direction of the fire-escape, but before he could reach it, the burly hand of the officer had him in a vise-like grip.

"If you try that again," he exclaimed hoarsely, wiping the blood from his eyes with the back of one hand, "I'll settle you with this club! Do you understand me? I never beat a man if I can help it, but when he forces me into it, he never wants another from the same source. Now come on!"

He gave Ben a jerk which nearly upset him, but if he expected quiet yielding he was mistaken.

Ben turned, even pinioned as he was, to show fight, but a single blow from the club was all that he required.

The officer jerked him to the window, and throwing it up, put his head out and blew his whistle shrilly.

With one hand grasping his club firmly and the other Ben's collar, he waited.

It did not require many minutes until the call for help was answered and the other officer who had been summoned came up-stairs.

"I did not want to risk an escape," the first man said by way of explanation. "He is one of the toughest customers that I have come across in many a day."

With one on either side they were leading him away, when Ben turned to Liz.

"You have escaped me this time," he said savagely, "but I will have my revenge, if I am forced to break through prison walls to get it. And as for you"--turning to Leonie----

"Shut up!" commanded the officer. Then to the two women: "You need not be afraid. He'll get a good long spell for this, and when he gets out he won't be so fond of this sort of thing. You need not let it worry you in the least degree. Now come on, and mind you step quickly."

The handling that he received was not of the gentlest, and as the officer closed the door behind him Liz crept up and touched Leonie gently.

"What are we to do?" she gasped.

"You must not fear," answered Leonie bravely. "There are many things that we both can do, now that there is no longer any danger from him. But the first thing is to attend to Dick, poor little Dick. You must forget Ben, Liz, and remember only that Dick needs you."

"And you?"

"You may be quite sure that I shall never desert you while you want me. I have no mother, Liz, no one on this earth any more than you have, and after I have accomplished my mission we will go away and live together, if you wish, getting what happiness we can out of the life that we shall make for ourselves."

"God bless you, my noble friend. I think you have already saved me from a madhouse."