"There's my hand on it," said Garth, offering it.
Rina gravely laid her own in it, and let him wag it up and down. This form of binding an agreement she knew.
Still she had not committed herself to anything; and Garth paused, determined to make her speak before he went on.
She favoured him at last with a walled glance purely savage. "Let 'Erbe't go off the island," she said indifferently. Clearly she asked it more with the idea to see what he would say, than with any hope of his agreeing.
"I will not do that," said Garth firmly. "Night and day he would be plotting to kill me. Night and day he would be driving you on to do it for him. You would try to do it. You cannot say no to him! And if you did bring me down—" Garth sunk his voice—"all, all would be lost!—Mabyn and you and Natalie and I!"
Her eyes sought his with a poignant glance; and she paled again. He felt he had made an impression.
"I will treat him kindly," he said, seeking to follow up his advantage. "You shall go to the shack now for everything he needs; and we will take it to him."
"Can I spik with him?" asked Rina in a low tone.
Garth rejoiced—it was the first token of submission. "For five minutes by my watch," he said.