"I should call it warmish. Anyhow, Mr. Carter's is red enough. And as you will drag the subject up, I must really point out to you that he's been hardly civil in the way he's avoided me. I haven't got smallpox."
"You're his employer. When you call him I'm sure he's glad enough to talk to you about what you want. But you must see his position; he wouldn't like to risk a snub by coming up when you might not happen to want him."
"I see. The idea that all communications should be conducted in a cold business footing. Am I to understand that Mr. Carter wished you to convey that view to me, Laura?"
"You know quite well he didn't. Kate, we used to be friends. I wish you'd answer me honestly what I asked you just now."
"Don't be tragic and ridiculous. You're half sick with the heat, and I really believe you want to quarrel with me by way of safety valve. Well, my dear, I shan't quarrel with you, that's all. I hate quarrelling. I've been dodging the excellent Captain Image all the day, as I know he wants to ease off his temper on me just because his silly old steamer has stuck her nose on the bank and got left by the tide. By the way, I candidly believe the accident happened just because he was amusing himself just at that precise moment with having a turn-up with—oh, well, we're getting onto touchy ground again. And—here is Mr. Carter. You seem in a hurry."
Carter came up the ladder to the bridge deck in two strides, and it was noteworthy that he addressed his first remark to his employer, and not to his fiancée. "Do you mind going below? There are half a dozen big Okky war canoes round that point ahead there. I've been forrad there, and could see them quite plainly through the mangrove roots."
"Have you told the Captain?"
"No. I'll tell him next. But will you go below, or into one of these deck houses? They are probably covering us this minute, and it's pot-leg they fire, not bullets. Pot-leg spreads and can make ghastly wounds."
"I don't like running away."
"If you could do any good staying out in the open I wouldn't ask you to move. Laura, will you persuade Miss O'Neill to go into cover, as she won't take any notice of me?"