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He examined it attentively. It lay something less than a quarter of a mile off shore; and a triangle might have been drawn between his camp, the island and Mabyn's shack, of which the three sides would have been of about equal length. The island was about three acres in extent; and completely ringed about with willow bushes.
When her voice broke a little at the close, Mabyn's lips parted, and his breath came quicker but it was no tenderness for a devoted parent, only a passion purely selfish, that caused his lack-lustre eyes to glitter again.
With the incredible swiftness of our subconscious moves, he dropped his useless gun; and twisting his body around, flung up his free hand, and warded the descending blow. Seizing Mabyn's wrist, he flung himself forward to bear the other back. It was all very brief. Mabyn, braced to receive Garth's weight, held his ground. Inspired with a febrile strength, he enjoyed a temporary advantage.
Casting off the last vestiges of manliness he wept and prayed her to wait for him. Her horse, Caspar, kicked out wildly, and struck him off. He lay on the ground sobbing and cursing; striving to drag himself along with clawing hands. Just before they gained the watercourse, Garth looked over his shoulder; and his heart leapt into his throat. The brown woman was reaching for Mabyn's rifle.
But Miss Bland refused to allow herself to be carried there." Mabyn's eyes bolted. His control over his facial muscles was imperfect; and the struggle between the open character he desired to convey, and the secret feelings that tortured him, was plain. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Build her a house," said Garth. Mabyn, turning his back, appeared to be considering.
The same with Garth; over and over she unconsciously showed she trusted him; but her blood still rebelled because he was Mabyn's enemy; and he would sometimes find her eyes fixed on him in a quickly veiled expression of savage, implacable hatred.
Experience had taught him that the quickest way to find out if he were right was to seem to fall in with her desire. So he promptly rose as if to leave. It worked. Mrs. Mabyn's eyes snapped. She did not relish being taken up so quickly. "One moment, Mr. Pevensey," she said plaintively and hastily. "Overlook the distraction of an old woman; I am torn two ways!"
"Do I not speak true words?" Garth challenged. She evaded the question. "If you go out, you send the police after him," she muttered. He saw Mabyn's hand here. "I will not," he said quickly. "I give you my word on that!" She looked at him incredulously. She did not understand the pledge. "There's my hand on it," said Garth, offering it.
Mabyn took the letters; and thrusting them carelessly in his pocket one fell to the ground and lay there unheeded snatched back at Natalie's hand, and attempted to retain it. Reining her horse back, she wrenched it free. A little shame reached the seat of Mabyn's consciousness. He reddened. "I'm not a leper," he muttered. "You came to me of your own free will, didn't you?"
"'Erbe't," she whispered, "my head is so full of things I am near crazy wit' thoughts! And my tongue is in a snare; I cannot speak at all!" Mabyn's only comment was a sort of grunt, which meant anything or nothing. Rina was encouraged to creep a little closer. "Oh, 'Erbe't, I love you!" she whispered. "I am loving you every minute! I so glad you marry me, 'Erbe't!"
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