'I've got money of my own,' he said. 'Don't you be frightened for your
money, I've plenty of that, for the time.'
'Well, then,' she coaxed, in a cold, almost sneering propitiation, 'put
your coat on and go where you're wanted--be a _man_, not a brute of a
German.'
She had drawn quite near to him, in her challenging coaxing intentness.
He looked down at her with his bewitched face.
'No, I shan't,' he said. 'I shan't do no such thing. _You'll_ put me up
for tonight.'
'Shall I!' she cried. And suddenly she flung her arms round him, hung on
to him with all her powerful weight, calling to the soldiers: 'Get the
rope, boys, and fasten him up. Alfred--John, quick now--'
The man reared, looked round with maddened eyes, and heaved his powerful
body. But the woman was powerful also, and very heavy, and was clenched
with the determination of death. Her face, with its exulting, horribly
vindictive look, was turned up to him from his own breast; he reached
back his head frantically, to get away from it. Meanwhile the young
soldiers, after having watched this frightful Laocoon swaying for a
moment, stirred, and the malicious one darted swiftly with the rope. It
was tangled a little.
'Give me the end here,' cried the sergeant.
Meanwhile the big man heaved and struggled, swung the woman round against
the seat and the table, in his convulsive effort to get free. But she
pinned down his arms like a cuttlefish wreathed heavily upon him.
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