“I am not afraid,” she answered.
“You told me once you could never be afraid of me.”
“I could never be afraid of you.”
“Why not?”
“I do not know.”
He lifted a hand in a tense, impatient gesture. “Listen,” he commanded. “Your Dan is a mile away; he’ll not be back this hour. None will come into this cabin save on my word. I tell you, I claim you from Dan Darrin, and I stick to that claim.”
“I tell you,” she said steadily, “that your strength and your claims are nothing to me. I’m Dan’s.”
His head lowered as he looked deep into her eyes for a flicker of panic. “You are not afraid, when I say this much to you?”
“No.”
The strength of her, the cold courage, the steady gaze, maddened him. For a long instant their eyes met and held; then he turned away from her, walked aimlessly across the cabin, turned by the companion to look back at her. His lips moved as though there were a bitter taste in his mouth, and the girl found herself longing to run to him, to comfort him and quiet him and bid him rest. She dropped her eyes, that he might not see this tenderness in them, and turned slowly back to her cabin.