"Don't wander away by yourself, out of sight, while we are engaged in this business."
She looked serious and perplexed for a moment, then turned a delicate pink and began to laugh in a pretty, embarrassed way.
"Are you afraid I'll get into mischief? Do you know it is very kind of you to feel that way?... And rather unexpected—in a man who—sat for[301] three days across the aisle from me—and never even looked in my direction. Tell me, what am I to be afraid of in this place?"
"There are snakes about," he said with emphasis.
"Oh, yes; I've seen some swimming."
"There are four poisonous species among them," he continued. "That's one of the reasons for your keeping near me."
She nodded, a trifle awed.
"So you will, won't you?"
"Yes," she said, taking his words so literally that, when they turned to walk toward the tents, she came up close beside him, naïvely as a child, and laid one hand on his sleeve as they started back across the Causeway.
"Suppose either one of us is bitten?" she asked after a silence.