Imbrie’s fist clenched. “Do you want me to beat you?”
The woman shrugged.
“You know very well why I don’t want to do it,” Imbrie went on. “It’s nothing to you if the girl hates you.”
“Oh, that’s why, eh? You’re scared she’d turn from bloody hands! She’s made a fool of you, all right!”
“Never mind that. You do it to-morrow.”
“Why not to-night?”
“I won’t have it done in her sight. To-morrow morning when we spell you make some excuse to take him into the bush. There you shoot him or stick a knife in his back. I don’t care so long as you make a job of it. You come back alone and make a story of how he tried to run away, see? Then I’ll beat you——”
“Beat me!” she cried indignantly.
“Fool! I won’t hurt you. I’ll just act rough to you for a while, till she gets better.”
“That girl has made me plenty trouble these last two years. I wish I’d never set eyes on her!”