Joe laughed. "I'll take my chance of it." Hitting out at random, he said: "I'll bet it was you scared the white woman into fits!"
To save herself Bela could not help betraying it in her face. Joe laughed uproariously.
"Gad! That'll make another good story to tell!"
"I will kill you!" repeated Bela dully.
Something in her desperate eyes warned him that one might press a primitive nature too far. He changed his tone.
"Mind you, I don't say I'm going to tell. I don't mean to tell if you do what I want."
"What you want?" she asked softly with glittering eyes.
"Not to be treated like dirt under anybody's feet, that's all," he replied threateningly. "To be treated as good as anybody else. You understand me?"
"I mak' no promise," said Bela.
"Well you know what you've got to expect if you don't."