“But you will,” he said smilingly.
“But I won’t,” she returned firmly. “Do you think I sell myself or let my father sell me for a load of opium. No, sir! What’s more, I am to marry Kea.”
“Don’t you love your father?”
“Yes, very much.”
“Then do you want to see him go to jail?”
“No.”
“Well, if I say the word, I’ll get him into jail.”
Kealoha burst into tears. “You white men are so cruel,” she sobbed out in Hawaiian. “Not content with defrauding us out of our lands, you wish to keep us from marrying one another.”
Roberts bit his lips. He disliked to see woman in tears. He took her hands in his and said gently, “Kealoha, listen to me.”
She raised her head and with brimming eyes looked him full in the face.