"Do you know Joe Mixer lets on that he has won you?" Ralph went on harshly. "That swine! What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't care what he says," she said indifferently. "I know what to do."
Ralph did not really suspect her, but it suited his sore and angry mood to make out that he did. "I trusted you!" he said bitterly.
This pierced her inscrutability. Her eyes flashed a hurt and angry look at him. "What you want?" she said swiftly and softly. "If I slap Joe Mixer's ugly face he make Wes' Trickett stop the boat and put me on shore. I don't want any trouble. I fool them all the same."
"Oh!" said Ralph, disconcerted and relieved.
"Go ashore," she said. "I tell you not to talk to me on the steamboat."
"They all make up to you," Ralph explained in justification. "It looks funny if I'm the only one that stays away. They've started to jolly me about it. You let them come around all they want. Why can't you be the same to me?"
"Go!" she said. "You can't act the same like them to me. They see the difference. If I friendly with you right away there will be trouble. Go stay with them."
This was unanswerable. "But I'm anxious about you," Ralph persisted in more humble tones. "What are you going to do?"
She shrugged coolly. "Do not worry," she said. "I can take care of myself. These are not the first foolish white men I have to manage."