Beside her in the snow crouched the house-dog, Rover, trembling with
fear, and mingling his howling cry of terror with her more awful one of
murder. The dog had been a witness of the fray, keeping close by his
mistress' side, and occasionally uttering a low growl of disapproval as
the blows fell thick and fast, and when at last it was over, and the
dead man lay white and still, with his blood upon the floor, Rover
sprang toward his master with a loud, angry bark and then fled with
Hannah into the storm, where he mingled his cry with hers and added to
the horror of the scene.
"Half-crazed with what he had done, and terrified lest be should be
detected, Peter Jerrold's first idea was of self-preservation from the
law, and the cries he had heard outside filled him with rage and fear.
Staggering to his daughter's side he struck the dog a savage blow, then
taking Hannah roughly by the arm and leading her into the house, he said
to her, fiercely:
"Are you crazy, girl, that you yell out your father's guilt to the
world? You and that brute of a dog, whom I will kill and so have him out
of the way! Here, you Rover, come here!" he said to the dog, who was
standing before Hannah, bristling with anger and growling at intervals,
"Come here while I finish you," and he opened the door of the wood-shed
where he always kept the gun he had carried in the war of 1812.
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