"What are you going to do?"
"I'm driving over to the other side of the island. I'll start at five, but I don't expect I shall get back to dinner till late."
They generally dined at seven.
"We'd better make it half past seven then."
"I guess it would be as well."
Mackintosh watched him knock the ashes out of his pipe. His vitality was rude and exuberant. It was strange to think that death hung over him. A faint smile flickered in Mackintosh's cold, gloomy eyes.
"Would you like me to come with you?"
"What in God's name should I want that for? I'm using the mare and she'll have enough to do to carry me; she don't want to drag you over thirty miles of road."
"Perhaps you don't quite realise what the feeling is at Matautu. I think it would be safer if I came with you."
Walker burst into contemptuous laughter.