After
which, having routed the enemy and done what he could to comfort
the rescued, Laddie moved heavily over to the veranda.
For some reason he was finding it hard to breathe. And his heart
was doing amazing things against his ribs. He was very tired
--very drowsy. He wanted to finish his interrupted nap. But it
was a long way into the house. And a spot on the veranda, under
the wide hammock, promised coolness. Thither he went; walking
more and more slowly.
At the hammock, he looked back: Ruloff was shinnying down from
the tree; on the far side. All the fight, all the angry zest for
torturing, seemed to have gone out of the man. Without so much as
glancing toward Sonya or the dog, he made his way, in a wide
detour, toward the barn and lunch.
Sonya ran up on the veranda after Lad. As he laid himself heavily
down, under the hammock, she sat on the floor beside him; taking
his head in her lap, stroking its silken fur and beginning to
sing to him in that high-pitched crooning little voice of hers.
Laddie loved this. And he loved the soft caress of her hand.
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