But he checked her savagely. “This is no place to talk over folly! It's no place to talk anything! There's something else to do besides talk!”
“We are going to die, aren't we?” She leaned close to him, and the question was hardly more than a whisper framed by her quivering lips.
“I think so,” he answered, brutally.
“Then let me tell you—”
“You can tell me nothing! Keep still!” he shouted, and drew away from her.
“Why doesn't Captain Downs come back after us?”
“Don't be a fool! The sea has taken them away.”
They exchanged looks and were silent for a little while, and the pride in both of them set up mutual barriers. It was an attitude which conspired for relief on both sides. Because there was so much to say there was nothing to say in that riot of the sea and of their emotions.
“I won't be a fool—not any more,” she told him. There was so distinctly a new note in her voice that he stared at her. “I am no coward,” she said. She seemed to have mastered herself suddenly and singularly.
Mayo's eyes expressed frank astonishment; he was telling himself again that he did not understand women.