But I tell you one thing--he's a dangerous customer!" Manella's great bright eyes opened wide like stars in the darkness.
"Dangerous ?--How ?--I do not understand---!" "Dangerous!"-- repeated Gwent, shaking his head at her--"Not to you, perhaps,--for you probably wouldn't mind if he killed you, so long as he kissed you first! Oh, yes, I know the ways of women! God made them trusting animals, ready to slave all their lives for the sake of a caress.

YOU are one of that kind--you'd willingly make a door-mat of yourself for Seaton to wipe his boots on.

I don't mean that he's dangerous in that way, because though _I_ might think him so, YOU wouldn't.

No,--what I mean is that he's dangerous to himself--likely to run risks of his life---" Here he paused, checked by the sudden terror in the beautiful eyes that stared at him.
"His life!" and Manella's voice trembled--"You think he is here to kill himself---" "No, no--bless my soul, he doesn't INTEND to kill himself"-- said Gwent, testily--"He's not such a fool as all that! Now look here!--try and be a sensible girl! The man is busy with an invention--a discovery--which might do him harm--I don't say it WILL--but it MIGHT.

You've heard of bombs, haven't you ?--timed to explode at a given moment ?" Manella nodded--her lips trembled, and she clasped her hands nervously across her bosom.
"Well!--I believe--I won't say it for certain,--that he's got something worse than that!" said Gwent, impressively--"And that's why he was chosen to live up on that hill in the 'hut of the dying' away from everybody.