'Now, then, my fellow!' gasped Annie at length. 'Now then--now--'

At the sound of her terrifying, cold triumph, he suddenly started to
struggle as an animal might, but the girls threw themselves upon him with
unnatural strength and power, forcing him down.

'Yes--now, then!' gasped Annie at length.

And there was a dead silence, in which the thud of heart-beating was to
be heard. It was a suspense of pure silence in every soul.

'Now you know where you are,' said Annie.

The sight of his white, bare arm maddened the girls. He lay in a kind of
trance of fear and antagonism. They felt themselves filled with
supernatural strength.

Suddenly Polly started to laugh--to giggle wildly--helplessly--and Emma
and Muriel joined in. But Annie and Nora and Laura remained the same,
tense, watchful, with gleaming eyes. He winced away from these eyes.

'Yes,' said Annie, in a curious low tone, secret and deadly. 'Yes! You've
got it now! You know what you've done, don't you? You know what you've
done.'

He made no sound nor sign, but lay with bright, averted eyes, and
averted, bleeding face.

'You ought to be _killed_, that's what you ought,' said Annie, tensely.
'You ought to be _killed_.' And there was a terrifying lust in her voice.