Rina, bethinking herself at last that her Cree was wasted on him, went back to English. "You wait!" she cried threateningly. "Bam-bye, her bone, him grow together, and she all the time cry of pain! Then you want me bad, and I not come! She will have fever and die!" She passionately threw down the leaves she had brought and ground them under her heel.
"Mabyn is unhurt!" Garth repeated patiently more than once. "I put him on the island."
At last it seemed to reach her. "What for you do that?" she demanded.
"He is always trying to kill me," he said. "I have only put him where he can do no harm!"
"I tak' him off!" she cried defiantly. "I mak' a raft! You can't stop me!"
"I have seized all the food," said Garth quietly. "You will get none for him unless he stays where he is."
Rina's anger stilled and concentrated. "You devil!" she hissed.
Garth turned away. "When you are yourself," he said coolly, "I will talk to you plainly and honestly about us all."
"I not talk with you!" she stormed. "You tell lies to me! I not come again—till some time you sleep—then I come and kill you!"
He faced her with a sudden imperiousness she could not ignore. "Then the way is made open for Mabyn to come to her!" he cried. "Where will you be then?—thrown on the ground, as you were yesterday!"