Sally struggled to her feet as David leaped toward the window. She had a fleeting glimpse of his rage-distorted young face, his lips snarled back from his teeth.
"David! Don't, David!" she cried, her voice a high, thin wail of terror--terror for David, not for Carson.
"You're not fit to live, Carson," David's young voice broke in its rage, but there was no faltering in the power behind the blow which crashed into the farmer's face.
Sally, sinking to her knees in her terror, heard the rending sound of flimsy timber giving way, then the more awful noise of a big body sliding rapidly down the roof. She half fainted then, so that when David tried to lift her to her feet she swayed dizzily against him, her eyes dazed, her ashen lips hanging slackly.
"Can you hear me, Sally?" David's voice, a little tremulous with awe at that which he had done, came like a series of loud claps in her ears.
She clung to him weakly, her eyes glancing fearfully from the window to his set, pale young face. Then she nodded slowly, like a child awakening from a nightmare.
"I think I've killed him, Sally. He hasn't made a sound since he crashed to the ground." David's hazel eyes were as wide as hers, and almost as frightened.
"You did--that--for me?" Sally whispered. "Oh, David, what are we going to do?" She began to cry then, in little, frightened whimpers, but her blue eyes, swimming in tears, never left his face.
The boy squared his shoulders as if to prepare them for a great burden, and in that instant he seemed to grow older. Color came slowly back to his bronzed cheeks, but his lips shook a little as he answered:
"We've got to run away, Sally, before the family comes home. I hate to leave him--down there--if he's only hurt. But I'll be damned if I stay here and get us both sent to jail just to ease a pain that that beast, if he isn't dead, may be having! Oh, God, I hope I didn't kill him! I just went crazy when he called you that name--Will you come, Sally, or do you want to stay and face them with me? Whatever's best for you--"
Sally Ford did not hesitate for a moment. Her blue eyes were full of trust and adoration as she answered: "I'll go with you, David. I knew I'd have to run away. I'm all packed."