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"You have been a thief," said Williams, his eyes like the polished muzzles of two rifles.

Seibert's big body appeared actually to swell, to enlarge, as if anger had a distending force; his round, darkly-red face grew purplish; and his hands, crumpling into huge fists, came half-way up. He shouted: "That is a lie! A lie, you pirate Williams!"

At that, Brundage, who had a lean, cold, sinister face, cast an apprehensive glance at his captain; but Williams remained motionless as, with almost the rapidity of repeating the multiplication table, he began to check off, from memory, the amount of copra Seibert had sold from the Combe plantation, when and to whom, and the inadequate sum he had returned to Combe. It showed that he had, in some way, checked up on Seibert with amazing precision.

Several times Seibert appeared trying to interrupt. His big mouth, with its coarse, stiff lips, would open, gape, close, re-open, as Williams went from fact to fact, speaking without gestures and in a low, hard, cold voice.