Stella Rosevelt — page 292: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

286 RESCUED FROM A HORRIBLE FATE. the dreadful situation; then she stepped quickly forward and said, in clear but authoritative tones: ‘‘Miss Richards, put that dog down as quietly as you can, and come away with me instantly, for I have just been told that it is mad.” Scarcely were the words uttered, when the little creature snapped at the hand raised to caress it, and, with a scream of fright, Josephine sprang to her feet and turned to fly. But the act aroused all the fury of the maddened animal, and he seized hold of her skirts, biting and tearing them in the most furious manner, foaming at the mouth, and howling frightfully in its sudden paroxysm of frenzy. ‘«Save me! save me!” Josephine screamed, and flying toward Star for protection. There was nota thought of personal danger in the fair young girl’s heart—not a thought of enmity, or of malice or evil; all her mind was concentrated upon one thing—how best to save her companion from this terrible danger and from a horrible death. «Stand still!” she commanded, in steady, almost stern tones. ‘‘Let him bite at your clothes all he chooses, but do not allow him to get at your feet; if you run, he will seize them and bite right through your boot. Have you courage to stand where you are fora moment? I will go behind him and slip the end of my parasol through his collar and pin him to the ground; then you can go and call help for me.” She spoke calmly but rapidly, and Josephine saw at once how much wisdom there was in her plan. ‘‘Ves, yes; I will do anything,” she said, hysterically; ‘‘ but be quick, for I cannot bear this much longer; I shall faint dead away.” — ‘‘If you faint,” Star returned, in an awful voice, ‘‘you are lost! There! he has entangled himself in that ruffle which he Eomicbooks:c¢o