Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/52

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JACQUELINE

the multitude pursued the fleeing men, now actually trembling for their lives. The two children and old Jan, caught in the swirling throngs, found themselves almost on the heels of the fugitives. Jan grunted and spluttered his disapproval, but Gysbert seemed fairly boiling over in his wrath, especially against Dirk Willumhoog.

The gate having been reached, it was opened but the smallest crack available by the guarding soldiers. The brewer from Utrecht squeezed his bulky form with difficulty through the narrow aperture, followed by the howls of the crowd. But Gysbert could contain himself no longer. Breaking away from his sister’s grasp, he rushed up to the remaining fugitive and shouted in his face:

“Shame on thee, Dirk Willumhoog, for a dog of a coward! Shame! shame!” The man turned on him with so savage a countenance that Jacqueline could not repress a frightened scream. The cry attracted the man’s attention to her also.