“I’m thinking of the risk, if——” began Halstead again, musingly and in a low voice.
“If what?”
“Well, what if the ’gator, seeing me coming, should turn and charge me, just miss me, and keep coming right on for you?”
“I’d run into the water, Mr. Halstead, for you to pick me up.”
“Good heavens! In the water that ’gator could go a hundred feet, almost, to your one!”
“Then I’d dash along the shore as fast as I could, until you could run the boat down and pick me up.”
“I’m going to try it,” decided Halstead, coolly. “It seems to promise the greatest safety for you.”
“But yourself?”
“Oh, confound me! I’m a boy.”
“You’re a man, Tom Halstead, and a splendid one at that!”