And yet—and yet! He needed the inheritance desperately. Matters financial had gone all wrong with him. How could he turn his back on offered salvation just because a youthful and pretty girl also required a financial lift in a cold-blooded and calculating world?
And yet—and yet! He would sleep over it, of course. But he honestly saw no prospect of changing his opinion concerning the ownership of the quarry.
As he sat there biting a stem of sweet-bay and listening to the cardinals piping from the forest, he looked down into the heated coquina pit.
A snake was coiled up on one of the ledges, basking.
"Miss Leslie!"[182]
She lifted her head and straightened her drooping shoulders, looking at him from eyes made drowsy and beautiful by the tropic heat.
"I only wanted to say," he began gravely, "that it is not safe for you to go into the quarry alone—in case you had any such intention."
"Why?"
"There are snakes there. Do you see that one? Well, he's harmless, I think—a king-snake, if I am not mistaken. But it's a good place for rattlers."
"Then you should be careful, too."