Maybe these sailors hadn’t gone pop-eyed when they saw him pumping lead into the bull’s-eye six times running? Tin cans and raw potatoes in the water, too. Something to brag about if he ever got back home. 105 105 He broke the gun and inspected the cylinder. There wasn’t as much grease on the cartridges as he would have liked. “Miss Norman?” called Dennison. “What is it?” “Are you comfortable?” “Oh, I’m all right. I’m only furious with rage, that’s all. You are still tied?” “Yes, ma’am.” “I really don’t understand your father.” “I have never understood him. Yet he was very kind to me when I was little. I don’t suppose there is anything in heaven or on earth that he’s afraid of.” “He is afraid of me.” “Do you believe that?” “I know it. He would give anything to be rid of me. But go on.” “With what?” “Your past.” “Well, I’m something like him physically. We are both so strong that we generally burst through rather than take the trouble to go round. I’m honestly sorry for him. Not a human being to love or be loved by. He never had a dog. I don’t recollect my mother; she died when I was three; and that death had something to do with the iron 106 in his soul. Our old butler used to tell me that Father cursed horribly, I mean blasphemously, when they took the mother out of the house. There are some men like that, who love terribly, away and beyond the average human ability. After the mother died he plunged into the money game. He was always making it, piling it up ruthlessly but honestly. Then that
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