"How?" said Calabash and Nicholas in a breath.
"He will soon come in; seek a quarrel—boldly—as you have never dared to do. Come to blows, if needs be. He is strong, but you will be two, and I will help you. Above all, no knives—no blood; let him be beaten, not wounded."
"And what then?" asked Nicholas.
"We'll have an explanation; we will tell him to leave the island to-morrow, otherwise we'll repeat this again to-morrow night; such continual quarrels will disgust him, I know; we have let him be too quiet."
"But he is stubborn as a mule; he'll remain on account of the children," said Calabash.
"He is dead beat, but an attack will not scare him," added Nicholas.
"Oh, yes," said the widow; "but every day, every day is too much; he will give up."
"And if he will not?"
"Then I have another plan to force him to leave tonight, or to-morrow morning at latest," answered the widow, with a strange smile.
"Truly, mother?"