She tried to meet his gaze calmly. This was the first time Jane had had opportunity to regard Tako closely. She saw now the aspect of power which was upon him. His gigantic stature was not clumsy, for there was a lean, lithe grace in his movements. His face was handsome in a strange foreign fashion. He was smiling now; but in the set of his jaw, his wide mouth, there was an undeniable cruelty, a ruthless dominance of purpose. And suddenly she saw the animal-like aspect of him; a thinking, reasoning, but ruthless, animal.
“You do not like me, do you?” he repeated.
SHE forced herself to reply calmly, “Why should I? You abduct my friends. There is a girl named Eunice Arton whom you have stolen. Where is she?”[7]
He shrugged. “You could call that the fortunes of war. This is war—”
“And you,” she said, “are my enemy.”
“Oh, I would not go so far as to say that. Rather would I call myself your friend.”
“So that you will return me safely? And also Bob Rivers, and my cousin, Don—you will return us safely as you promised?”
“Did I promise? Are you not prompting words from my lips?”
Jane was breathless from fear, but she tried not to show it.
“What are you going to do with us?” she demanded. There is no woman who lacks feminine guile in dealing with a man; and in spite of her terror Jane summoned it to her aid.