"I read it in your eyes."
"Then please do not read my eyes, but look where you are going."
"Perhaps I was doing that too," he said.
They were standing on the landward side of the shallow water in which he fought the octopus.
Already the dark fluid emitted by his assailant in its final discomfiture was passing away, owing to the slight movement of the tide.
Iris was vaguely conscious of a double meaning in his words. She did not trouble to analyze them. All she knew was that the man's voice conveyed a subtle acknowledgment of her feminine divinity. The resultant thrill of happiness startled, even dismayed her. This incipient flirtation must be put a stop to instantly.
"Now that you have brought me here with so much difficulty, what are you going to do?" she said. "It will be madness for you to attempt to ford that passage again. Where there is one of those horrible things there are others, I suppose."
Jenks smiled. Somehow he knew that this strict adherence to business was a cloak for her real thoughts. Already these two were able to dispense with spoken word.
But he sedulously adopted her pretext.
"That is one reason why I brought the crowbars," he explained. "If you will sit down for a little while I will have everything properly fixed."