Before he had time to complete his sentence Martin Sanders sprang into the scene.
“What is it?” he exclaimed, with a glare at Raybold, as if he suspected why he had been called.
“Martin,” said Margery, with a good deal of sharpness in her voice, “I want you to take down this hammock and carry it away. I can’t stay here any longer. I thought that at least one quiet place out-of-doors could be found where I would not be disturbed, but it seems there is no such place. Perhaps you can hang the hammock somewhere near our cabin.”
Martin’s face grew very red. “I think,” said he, “that you ought not to be obliged to go away because you have been disturbed. Whoever disturbed you should go away, and not you.”
Now Mr. Raybold’s face also grew red. “There has been enough of this!” he exclaimed. “Guide, you can go where you came from. You are not wanted here. If Miss Dearborn wishes her hammock taken down, I will do it.” Then turning to Margery, he continued: “You do not know what it is I have to say to you. If you do not hear me now, you will regret it all your life. Send this man away.”
“I would very much like to send a man away if I knew how to do it,” said Margery.
“Do it?” cried Martin. “Oh, Miss Dearborn, if you want it done, ask me to do it for you!”
“You!” shouted Raybold, making two steps towards the young guide; then he stopped, for Margery stood in front of him.
“I have never seen two men fight,” said she, “and I don’t say I wouldn’t like it, just once; but you would have to have on boxing-gloves; I couldn’t stand a fight with plain hands, so you needn’t think of it. Martin, take down the hammock just as quickly as you can. And if you want to stay here, Mr. Raybold, you can stay, but if you want to talk, you can talk to the trees.”
Martin heaved a sigh of disappointment, and proceeded to unfasten the hammock from the trees to which it had been tied. For a moment Raybold looked as if he were about to interfere, but there was something in the feverish agility of the young guide which made his close proximity as undesirable as that of a package of dynamite.