"I am on my way back to camp, Captain Magnus. Please let me pass."
"It won't do no harm if you're a little late. There ain't no one
there keepin' tab. Ain't you always a-strayin' off with the
Honorable? I ain't so pretty, but--"
"You are impertinent. Let me pass."
"Oh, I'm impert'nent, am I? That means fresh, maybe. I'm a plain
man and don't use frills on my langwidge. Well, when I meets a
little skirt that takes my eyes there ain't no harm in lettin' her
know it, is there? Maybe the Honorable could say it nicer--"
With a forward stride he laid a hand upon my arm. I shook him off
and stepped back. Fear clutched my throat. I had left my revolver
in my quarters. Oh, the dreadful denseness of these woods, the
certainty that no wildest cry of mine could pierce them!
And then Crusoe, who had been waiting quietly behind me in the
path, slipped in between us. Every hair on his neck was bristling.
The lifted upper lip snarled unmistakably. He gave me a swift
glance which said, _Shall I spring_?
Quite suddenly the gorilla blandishments of Captain Magnus came to
an end.
"Say," he said harshly, "hold back that dog, will you? I don't
want to kill the cur."
"You had better not," I returned coldly. "I should have to explain
how it happened, you know. As it is I shall say nothing. But I
shall not forget my revolver again when I go to walk."
And Crusoe and I went swiftly down the path which the captain no
longer disputed.