"'You don't imagine,' said he, 'that I'd ever set foot in that blasted boat again?'
"What is more, he had cut a couple of cloths out of the sail, for a winding-sheet.… But the pot was near to boiling; and after we had supped on the crayfish and the fruit, he fell to work again, nailing together a rough coffin. He explained that he had served his time in quite a humble way before embarking in business, on borrowed capital, as a tradesman. Then, under the risen moon, by the scarcely audible plash of the beach, he told me quite a lot about himself and his early days, as he fashioned a coffin for the woman into whose arms I had driven him, as I had driven him with her corpse to this lost isle.
"In the midst of it I said, 'You know, I suppose, that she saved your life?'
"He checked his hammer midway in a stroke, and stared at me, the moonlight white on his face.
"'You know,' I repeated, 'that she gave her life to save yours?' and I told him how. At the end of the tale, if ever hatred shone in a man's eyes, it shone in Farrell's; and yet there was incredulity in them too.
"'What!" he gasped. 'And you let her do it, there in front of you, when with a turn of the hand—O my God!' he broke off. 'I've thought at times you must be the Devil himself, you Foe: but I never reckoned you for as bad as all that! The wonder to me is I don't kill you where you sit.' He clenched the hammer, and twice again he called on his God. The dog growled.
"'Steady!' said I, showing him the revolver. 'Steady, and sit down. You can't kill me, my good man, unless you do it in my sleep—against which I'll take precautions. So you may quit wondering on that score.… And I can't kill you; for you're too precious—doubly precious now, having been bought with that price.… Sit down, I tell you, and order that infernal dog to be quiet: else I'll pump some lead into him and, dog against dog, you may count it quits.'
"'Quits?' he echoed.
"'In the matter of two yellow dogs only: and I have given up keeping pets, having you.… Now listen: Did you ever guess that I loved your wife?'
"It took him like a blow between the eyes. 'No, I didn't,' he answered slowly, and then with a sudden rush of malignity, 'I wonder it didn't occur to you, then—I wonder you didn't try to—to—tamper with her.'