With a bound he sprang at the open door; and again the strap came lashing down, and a wild voice:
David slammed the door to. It shut with a rasping snap; and at the same moment a great body from without thundered against it with terrific violence, and a deep voice roared like the sea when thwarted of its prey.
"Too late, agin!" said David, breathing hard; and shot the bolt home with a clang. Then he turned on his father.
The little man half turned and leapt at the old musketoon hanging on the wall. He missed it, turned again, and struck with the strap full at the other's face. David caught the falling arm at the wrist, hitting it aside with such tremendous force that the bone all but snapped. Then he smote his father a terrible blow on the chest, and the little man staggered back, gasping, into the corner; while the strap dropped from his numbed fingers.
Outside Red Wull whined and scratched; but the two men paid no heed.
David strode forward; there was murder in his face. The little man saw it: his time was come; but his bitterest foe never impugned Adam M'Adam's courage.
He stood huddled in the corner, all dishevelled, nursing one arm with the other, entirely unafraid.
"Mind, David," he said, quite calm, "murder 'twill be, not manslaughter."
"Murder 'twill be," the boy answered, in thick, low voice, and was across the room.
Outside Red Wull banged and clawed high up on the door with impotent pats.
The little man suddenly slipped his hand in his pocket, pulled out something, and flung it. The missile pattered on his son's face like a rain-drop on a charging bull, and David smiled as he came on. It dropped softly on the table at his side; he looked down and--it was the face of his mother which gazed up at him!
"Mither!" he sobbed, stopping short. "Mither! Ma God, ye saved him--and me!"
He stood there, utterly unhinged, shaking and whimpering.
It was some minutes before he pulled himself together; then he walked to the wall, took down a pair of shears, and seated himself at the table, still trembling. Near him lay the miniature, all torn and crumpled, and beside it the deep-buried axe-head.
He picked up the strap and began cutting it into little pieces.
"There! and there! and there!" he said with each snip. "An' ye hit me agin there may be no mither to save ye."