"No, no, no, Dan'l," she said insistently.
He flamed at her in sudden fury: "If it's not me, it's Brander.... Him that you...."
"Brander?" she cried, in a passion. "Brander? The thief that's lying now in the irons I put upon him? Him? Him you say I love?"
The very force of her anger should have told him the truth; but he was so blind that it served only to rejoice him. "I knew it," he cried. "I knew it. So you love me, Faith?..."
"Must a woman always be loving?" she demanded wearily.
"Aye, Faith. It's the nature of them.... Always to be loving.... Some one. With you, Faith, it's me. Listen and see...."
"Dan'l," she said steadily, "what's the end of all this? What's the end of it all? What would you have me do?"
"Love me," he told her.
"What else?"
"See the truth," he said. "Understand that the Sally is lost.... Fast aground, here, to rot her bones away.... See that it's hopeless and wild to stick by her. We'll get out the boats. You and I and Roy and a man or two will take one; the others may have the other craft. It's not fifty miles to..."