‘I’m afraid it’s not unlikely that something will happen to her, unless, of course—’ I paused, but her quick wit supplied the omission.
‘Unless,’ she said, ‘he lets her live now, because I am out of his hands?’
‘Will you stay out of his hands?’ I asked. ‘I mean, as long as I can keep you out of them.’
She looked round with a troubled expression.
‘How can I stay here?’ she said in a low tone.
‘You will be as safe here now as you were in your uncle’s care,’ I answered.
She acknowledged my promise with a movement of her head; but a moment later she cried:
‘But I am not with you—I am with the people! The island is theirs and mine. It’s not yours. I’ll have no part in giving it to you.’
‘I wasn’t proposing to take pay for my hospitality,’ said I. ‘It’ll be hardly handsome enough for that, I’m afraid. But mightn’t we leave the question for the moment?’ And I described briefly to her our present position.
‘So that,’ I concluded, ‘while I maintain my claim to the island, I am at present more interested in keeping a whole skin on myself and my friends.’