"Did you, or did you not, go out at the window on Saturday?"
She did not see that Alec Forbes had left his seat, and was slowly
lessening the distance between them and him.
"Yes," she answered, trembling from head to foot.
"Did you, or did you not, bring a loaf of bread to those who were kept
in?"
"Yes, sir."
"Where did you get it?"
"I bought it, sir."
"Where did you get the money?"
Of course every eye in the school was fixed upon her, those of her
cousins sparkling with delight.
"I got it oot o' my ain kist, sir."
"Hold up your hand."
Annie obeyed, with a most pathetic dumb terror pleading in her face.
"Don't touch her," said Alec Forbes, stepping between the executioner
and his victim. "You know well enough it was all my fault. I told you
so on Saturday."
Murder Malison, as the boys called him, turned with the tawse over his
shoulder, whence it had been on the point of swooping upon Annie, and
answered him with a hissing blow over his down-bent head, followed by a
succession of furious blows upon every part of his person, as it
twisted and writhed and doubled; till, making no attempt at resistance,
he was knocked down by the storm, and lay prostrate under the fierce
lashes, the master holding him down with one foot, and laying on with
the whole force of the opposite arm.
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