Read Manly Wade Wellman - Novel 1940 for Free Online Page B

the pit of my stomach.
    "Back," he commanded, with quiet menace.
"Back, I say, at once. . . .That is better. What fantastic objection have you to raise this time?"
    "You add money to beauty and love in the effort to
buy me!" I cried in new disgust. "Dowry! A
bribe to marriage ! Oh, you are infamous! Surely we
are living in the last days of the world !" I
flung wide my arms, as though in invitation of a shot. "Kill me,
Guarracco! You said once that you would kill me if I disobeyed you. Well, I
disobey, and with my last breath I do name you a sorry scoundrel!"
    He shook his head, and moved back. "No," he
demurred gently. "Perhaps, after all, the fault was mine. I was too abrupt
for your dainty nature, Leo." He turned his eyes, but not his head, toward
the unhappy Lisa where she sat in mute and woeful confusion. "Forgive this
ungallant fellow my child. Perhaps another time—"
    "There shall be no other time," I said flatly.
"I refuse, once and for all."
    "Then go," Guaracco bade me, and he simulated a
bored yawn. "You have disappointed me, and shamed Lisa. Return to your
labors among the arts, and when your heart is cooler we shall talk again.
Go,"
    I WENT, and my nature was more fiery hot than the waxing sun overhead. Guaracco had spoken this much truth. I had
brought shame to Lisa. Apparently she had been ready to accept me as a mate,
and whether this was at Guaracco's hypnotic suggestion or not made little
difference in the way my reaction must have affected her. She had come to meet
me, hoping to hear my praises and pledges, to stand with me before a priest.
    Undoubtedly she understood my refusal to be her lover, but
could I not have been more kindly toward her?
    Could I not have said, parenthetically, that it was in
reality Guaracco I refused, and that on some happier occasion— like many a man
leaving a stormy scene, I was aware of fully a score of things I should have
said and done.
    I was also aware that I loved Lisa.
    No getting away from that, even when I tried to say that
it was all Guaracco's adroit suggestion, that he may have hypnotized me as well
as Lisa, from the first day he had introduced us to each other.
    Conjectures about it were only the more disturbing.
Finally, I gave up the struggle against my hew realization.
    I loved Lisa, and probably I had lost her. There was
nothing I could do about it, I told myself as I drew near to the bottega,
turned my footsteps to enter at the door.
    A final glow of rage swelled all through me. I yearned
wildly for an opportunity to catch Guaracco off guard, to strike and throttle
him. A mood, rare in me, made my heart and body thirst for violent action.
    As Fate would have it, violent action was about to be
provided for my needs.
    A horseman came cantering along the street. His horse, a
handsome gray, spurned a loose stone from its place among the cobbles. Another moment, and the beast had stumbled and fallen, throwing its
rider headlong.
    A crowd of strolling pedestrians within view of the mishap
all hurried close, myself among them. My hand went out
to lift the sprawling man, but with a grunt and an oath he had scrambled to his
feet and was tugging at the bridle of his horse. It would not rise.
    "The beast is hurt," I suggested.
    "Not this devil-begotten nag," growled the
rider. He dragged on the bridle again, then kicked the
animal's gray ribs with his sharp-toed boot.
    Harshness to animals has never pleased me and, as I have
said, my anger was ready to rise at anything. I shouted in immediate and strong
protest.
    The man turned upon me. He was tall and sturdy, with a
forked black beard and two square front teeth showing under a short upper lip.
He wore a long sword under his cloak of brown silk, and had the look of a tough
customer.
    "Do not meddle between me and my horseflesh," he
snapped, and once more heaved at the bridle.
    The injured horse struggled up at last, driving the little
crowd back on all sides, and the master laughed shortly.
    "Did I not say he was unhurt?