Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/100

88 had he accepted it but—" he shrugged his shoulders—"he lost his temper. You know what that sort of thing means here in the South Seas. I am not a man of violence, but one must look after one's self."

"That's just our point," said Keith tersely. "We're looking after ourselves, and here's another thing—we don't need your assistance in doing it."

"It need never have come to violence—" Moniz began.

"No, unless you had started the shooting," Keith interrupted. "You damned scoundrel, the first day you went out to the reef you started your gun play when Miss Trent was there. Your five minutes is up, and what you have to say doesn't interest us. Get out of this."

Moniz showed his white teeth in a broad smile, made another sweeping bow to Joan, and rowed back to the schooner.

"Don't you acknowledge that I was right," the girl asked, "when I said he wasn't to be trusted?"

"I doubt whether the devil will trust him with a coal shovel when the time comes," Keith declared.

"Thank goodness you were here," Joan said. "He always gives me an uncomfortable feeling as though he were trying to get behind me and stab me in the back."

"Well, he's a cool customer! Look there! If he isn't making a bee-line for the reef again!"