"Mightily!"
"Ah—bah! 'Tis because you be fool and no man!"
"Mayhap," said I, taking up my hammer, "howbeit I do know this island for a prison and you for an evil thing—"
"Ah!" sighed she softly. "I have had men hanged for saying less!"
"So would I be quit of you as soon as may be," said I, fitting my first timber in place whiles she watched me, mighty disdainful.
"So you would mend the boat, amigo mio, and sail away from the island and me—yes?"
"God knoweth it!"
"Mayhap He doth, but what o' me? Think ye I shall suffer you to leave me here alone and destitute, fool?"
"The which is to be seen!" said I; and having measured my plank and sawed it to proper length I began to rivet it to the frame, making such din with my hammer that she, unable to make herself heard, presently strode away in a fury, to my great content.
But, in a little back she cometh, and on her hip that bejewelled Spanish rapier that had once been part of Black Bartlemy's treasure (as hath been told) and which (having my own stout cut-and-thrust) I had not troubled to bring away from the cave.