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Show •252 .as quick as I could force my legs to move. "They've got me at last!" She had unnatural speed for an old woman. I turned a corner and forced another bit of quickness out of my feet, but slap! slap! here she came hot on my tail. "Wait, hee! hee! You'll enjoy it, ha! ha! ha!" Oh Lord, I thought, isn't anything going to save me? No it isn't. They've got me at last. Who this they was I didn't know. I ran harder. My feet felt like clumsy weights dangling at the end of my legs, my knees popped and creaked with the effort, but it wasn't any use- slippety-slap, hee! hee!--in another three seconds her brown fingernails would snag me by the shoulder and those horrible glossy white lips would fasten on my mouth and suck the life out of me. But what was that sound coming down a side street just ahead? A wheeze, a clang of loose axles, metal and glass rattling-it was Thorneberry's yellow truck. I put on one last frantic spurt and leaped on the running board, grabbing at the outside mirror to keep from falling back. We roared away; behind me I heard her screech. "I'll get you next time, sweetie. I'll break your back for starters. Never you fear. Hee! hee!" "Thanks," I said to the driver. He turned toward me: a terribly crushed face, a mask of blood and bone and bits |