“Speakin’ of salt,” he said apologetically,
“I’ll have to try a couple of these to
be sure that the captain’s right. I can
tell by a taste or two.”
He pried open one of the shells and ate the contents
hastily, keeping one eye askance against the return
of McTee.
“Maybe he’s right about these shellfish,”
he pronounced judicially, “but it’s a
hard thing an’ a dangerous thing to take the
word of a man like McTee—he’s that
hasty. We must go easy on believin’ what
he says, Kate.”
Then understanding flooded Kate’s mind like
waves of light in a dark room. She tilted back
her head and laughed, laughed heartily, laughed till
the tears brimmed her eyes. The gloomy scowl of
Harrigan stopped her at last. As her mirth died
out, the tall form of McTee appeared suddenly before
them with his arms crossed. Where they touched
his breast, the muscles spread out to a giant size.
He was turned toward her, but the gleam of his eye
fell full upon Harrigan.
“I suppose,” said McTee, and his teeth
clicked after each word like the bolt of a rifle shot
home, “I suppose that you were laughing at me?”
The Irishman rose and faced the Scotchman, his head
thrust forward and a devil in his eyes.
“An’ what if we were, Misther McTee?”
he purred. “An’ what if we wer-r-re,
I’m askin’?”
Kate leaped to her feet and sprang between them.
“Is there anything we can do,” she broke
in hurriedly, “to get away from the island?”
“A raft?” suggested Harrigan.
McTee smiled his contempt.
“A raft? And how would you cut down the
trees to make it?”
“Burn ’em down with a circle of fire at
the bottom.”
“And then set green logs afloat? And how
fasten ’em together, even supposing we could
burn them down and drag them to the water? No,
there’s no way of getting off the island unless
a boat passes and catches a glimpse of our fire.”
“Then we’ll have to move this fire to
the top of the hill,” said Harrigan.
“Suppose we go now and look over the hill and
see what dry wood is near it,” said McTee.
“Good.”
Something in their eagerness had a meaning for Kate.
“Would you both leave me?” she reproached
them.
“It was McTee suggested it,” said Harrigan.
McTee favored his comrade with a glance that would
have made any other man give ground. It merely
made Harrigan grin.
“We’ll draw straws for who goes and who
stays,” said McTee.
Kate picked up two bits of wood.
“The short one stays,” she said.
“Draw,” said Harrigan in a low voice.
“I was taught manners young,” said McTee.
“After you.”
They exchanged glares again. The whole sense
of her power over these giants came home to her as
she watched them fighting their duel of the eyes.
