Peter hesitated, but Lolla, her eyes flashing, urged him on.

"Go on! Do you want me to tell all the women that you were frightened by
a little girl; a girl you could crush with one hand?" she cried,
angrily. "You coward! Tie them up, I tell you! Oh, if my man John were
here he'd show you! Here--"

Peter, stung by her taunts, made a quick rush forward. For a moment
Bessie did not know what to do. She wondered if, when it came to the
test, she would really be able to use the knife; to try to cut or stab
this man. He was getting nearer each moment, and, just as she was almost
within his grasp she darted back and aimed a blow at him with the knife.

There was no danger that it would strike him; Bessie thought that, if
she could only convince him that she had meant what she said, he would
hesitate. And she was right. He gave a cry of alarm as he saw the steel
flash toward him and drew back.

"She would stab me!" he exclaimed furiously, to Lolla. "I was not to be
struck with a knife. John said nothing about that. He told me only to
guard this girl--"

"She wouldn't really touch you with it," screamed Lolla, so furious that
she forgot the need of keeping her voice low. "John wouldn't let her
frighten him that way, he is too brave. Oh, how the women will laugh
when they hear how the brave Peter was frighted by a girl with a little
knife!"

But Bessie, in spite of her own indecision, had managed, somehow, to