She was silent.
"Tell me where they are or take the consequences!" he cried, approaching her threateningly.
"I not tell you if you kill me," she replied, standing fast.
This was an out and out challenge to him to strike her. When it came to the point he could not do it, of course. He turned away, wild with impotent rage. Must she always get the best of him? If there had only been a man of her people there that he could take it out on! He broke into passionate denunciations of her. It was a weird enough scene, there on the shore in the dim dusk.
"What are you keeping me here for, anyway?" was the burden of his cry. "What do you expect to gain by it?"
"You safe here," Bela muttered. "If we go to the shore those men kill you, I think."
This did not help soothe him.
"I'll take my chance of that!" he cried. "I know how to deal with men. I don't need a woman to look after me! Do you think you're going to keep me here all summer?"
"No," she returned. "The bishop and the police comin' pretty soon. Then you safe."
"It's all your fault anyhow!" cried Sam. "Why couldn't you let me alone in the first place? What's your game anyhow?"