"How mean you?"
"I mean this boat of yours shall never sail except I sail in her."
"Which is yet to prove!" said I, feeling the air exceeding close and stifling.
"Regard now, Master Innocence," said she, holding up one hand and ticking off these several items on her fingers as she spoke: "You have crossed me once. You have beat me once. You have refused me honourable fight. You have hurt me with vile club. And now you would leave me here alone to perish—"
"All true save the last," quoth I, finding my breath with strange difficulty, "for though alone you need not perish, for I will show you where—where you—shall find abundance—of food—and—" But here I stopped and gasped as an intolerable pain shot through me.
"Ah—ah!" said she, leaning forward to stare at me keen-eyed. "And doth it begin to work—yes? Doth it begin so soon?"
"Woman," I cried, as my pains increased, "what mean you now? Why d'ye stare on me so? God help me, what have you done—"
"The milk, fool!" said she, smiling.
"Ha—what devil's brew—poison—"
"I warned you but, being fool, you nothing heeded—no!"