"You're thinking you can reach them?" she cried.
"You don't seem sure that you want me to," I observed.
"Oh, how can I tell what I want? If I help you, I am betraying the island. If I do not—"
"You'll have a death or two at your door, and you'll marry the biggest scoundrel in Europe," said I.
She hung her head, and plucked fretfully at the embroidery on the neck of her dress.
"But, anyhow, you couldn't reach them," she said. "You are close prisoners here."
That, again, seemed true, so true that it put me in a very bad temper. Therefore I rose, and, leaving her without much ceremony, strolled into the kitchen. Here I found Watkins dressing the cow's head, Hogvardt surrounded by knives, and Denny lying on a rug on the floor with a small book, which he seemed to be reading. He looked up with a smile that he. considered knowing.
"Well, what does the captive queen say?" he asked with levity.
"She proposes to marry Constantine," I answered, and added quickly to Hogvardt: "What's the game with those knives, Hog?"
"Well, my lord," said Hogvardt, surveying his dozen murderous instruments, "I thought there was no harm in putting an edge on them, in case we should find a use for them;" and he fell to grinding one with great energy.