, Seagreave," interrupted Gallito, in
his harsh, grating voice. "I'll deal with you later."

But at the sound of Seagreave's voice the color had come back to Pearl's
cheek, the light to her eyes. Hands on hips, she swung her skirts and
surveyed Bob Flick and her father with a scornful, slanting gaze. "I
didn't know that there was anybody in the world that would dare ask me
such questions, even you, Pop. And making arrangements with Sweeney
without waiting to consult me! And ordering me to leave Colina on two
or three hours' notice! Dios!" She spread her hands out on either side
of her as if pushing away an impossible thing. "I can hardly believe it.
I didn't answer you, Pop, nor you, Bob, because I was trying hard to
take things in. But now," she turned to Seagreave, her head lifted
higher yet in the glory of joy and pride, "I'm not going to leave
Colina--yet, and I'm not going to sign up with Sweeney; am I, Harry?"

Seagreave passed her father and was beside her in two strides. "You're
going to do as you please," he said.

She leaned toward him, smiling, her fugitively sweet, tantalizing smile;
and, oblivious of the others, Seagreave caught her to him as if he would
hold her against the world.

And, seeing this, Bob Flick turned and walked down the hill with never a
backward glance.

Not so Gallito; his eyes had darkened, those fierce hawk's eyes; his
face was livid. "Pearl," his voice grated in his throat, "you can't make
a fool of both me and yourself like this. You are a fool of a woman like
all the rest, and because I have the bad luck to be your father I must
save you from your own madness. You've got your big chance, the chance
you've been waiting for, and you're not going to throw it away now, just
because you been staying up in that cabin alone with him until you've
lost your wits about him." He indicated Seagreave with a contemptuous
jerk of the thumb.

"Seagreave," in cold fury, "you're a damned thief to take advantage of
her this way. Now, Pearl, you come on."

He seized her by the wrist and would have drawn her roughly from Harry's
encircling arm. She resisted, and Harry, in the strength of his
indignation, unloosed the old man's grasp and drew her hastily away. But
the touch of his hands had roused in Gallito fresh rage, and with almost
unbelievable quickness he lifted his heavy, gnarled stick and swung it
above Seagreave's head. Harry leaped back, near, perilously near, the
edge of the ravine. The