The swift, persistent movement of them fascinated her. The ghostly shapes of them pattering sinuously and silently along the ground; the dull scratching thud of the claws and bodies that hurled themselves again and again into the strong wire netting. The impossibility of their escape throttled her. Their futile attempts at freedom caused a powerful nausea to creep over her. And there in the center of the run she could distinguish, chained to the dog-house,--a pale blur in the fading light,--the motionless yellow mass of the chow, China-Ching.
The shrill, prolonged whines, the quick, incessant barking:--
"Oh, my Gawd;" she muttered involuntarily. "Oh, my Gawd!"
The man sitting in the middle of the room pulled his pipe out of his mouth.
She stood at the window, her eyes fixed steadfastly on that one dumb dog among all those yelping, snarling other dogs.
The man got up from his chair and came and stood beside her. Unconsciously she shrank away from his nearness.
"Ain't you used to that by now;--ain't you?"
She turned toward him;--all but her eyes. Her eyes were still riveted out there upon the motionless chow chained in the center of the run.
"It ain't the noise; that,--that don't mean so much, James. It ain't the noise."
She pointed a trembling forefinger at that yellow mass tied to the dog-house.
"Him," she whispered. "He don't make no racket, James."
"Yes;" her voice was still. "China-Ching. He don't make no racket, James."
"I'd like to hear him," the man blustered. "I'd just like to hear one peep out of him;--that's all."
She saw his coarse, hairy hand go to his hip pocket. She smiled bitterly. She knew the confidence he felt when he touched the mother-of-pearl handle of his pistol.
"You don't need that on him," she said. "He just sits there and don't never move. He don't hardly eat when you feeds him. He don't seem to have no heart left for nothing. He ain't like the terrier what had the distemper;--he ain't like the greyhound what had the hydrophobia,--so awful bad."
"What d'you mean?" The man muttered angrily. "Ain't they had the hydrophobia;--ain't they had the distemper;--ain't they?"
"Ain't I the one to know? If I ain't been born with dog-sense, would folks be giving me their muts to care for?"