First of all you screamed terrible hard. I was
afraid maybe you'd hurt yourself yellin' that way. I was about to take
you out again when all at once I heard Dan start whistlin' and pretty
quick your cryin' stopped. I listened an' wondered. After that I never
had to lock Dan in his room. I was sure he'd stay on account of you.
But now, honey, I'm gettin' to the end of the story, an' I'm goin' to
give you the straight idea the way I see it.
"I've watched Dan like--like a father, almost. I think he loves me,
sort of--but I've never got over being afraid of him. You see I can't
forget how he smiled when I licked him! But listen to me, Kate, that
fear has been with me all the time--an' it's the only time I've ever
been afraid of any man. It isn't like being scared of a man, but of a
panther.
"Now we'll jest nacherally add up all the points we've made about
Dan--the queer way I found him without a home an' without wantin'
one--that strength he has that's like the power of a mule compared
with a horse--that funny control he has over wild animals so that they
almost seem to know what he means when he simply looks at them (have
you noticed him with Black Bart and Satan?)--then there's the yellow
light that comes in his eyes when he begins to get real mad--you an' I
have both seen it only once, but we don't want to see it again! More
than this there's the way he handles either a knife or a gun.
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