Сердца трех / Hearts of Three

�You quite revive my last recollection of you here on the beach, one second reproaching me for not kissing you, the next second kissing me yes, you did, too – and the third second threatening to destroy my digestion forever with that little tin toy pistol of yours. No; you haven’t changed an iota from last time. You’re the same spitfire of a Leoncia. You’d better let me untie that for you. Don’t you see the knot is jammed? Your little fingers can never manage it.

She stamped her foot in sheer inarticulateness of rage.

�Lucky for me you don’t make a practice of taking your tin toy pistol in swimming with you,’ ho teased on, �or else there �d be a funeral right here on the beach pretty pronto of a perfectly nice young man whose intentions are never less than the best.’

The Indian boy returned at this moment running with her bathing wrap, which she snatched from him and put on hastily. Next, with the boy’s help, she attacked the knot again.

�It was contamination,’ she flashed, for his benefit.

But Francis, still engaged in hardening his heart against her, shook his head slowly and said:

�It doesn’t save you, Leoncia. I’ve left my mark on you that never will come off.’

He pointed to the excoriations he had made on her knee and laughed.

�The mark of the beast,’ she came back, turning to go. �I warn you to take yourself off, Mr. Henry Morgan.’

But he stepped in her way.

�And now we’ll talk business, Miss Solano,’ he said in changed tones. �And you will listen. Let your eyes flash all they please, but don’t interrupt me.’ He stooped and picked up the note he had been engaged in writing. �I was just sending that to you by the boy when you screamed.

Though she refused to receive it, her eyes involuntarily scanned the opening line:

I am the man whom you mistook for Henry Morgan…

She looked at him with startled eyes that could not comprehend much but which were guessing many vague things.

�On my honor,’ he said gravely.

�You… are… not… Henry?’ she gasped.

�No, I am not.