I can act mean toward you--sheer plug-ugly if you force my hand--but I'd sooner not; and I'd just as lief help you as hinder you, provided you don't upset what I'm seeking to build." She laughed again, and not so bitterly.
"You're on the wrong side of the wall to build much," she answered.

"You should come over into our camp.

You're so like Ali Higg in certain lights and in some of your gestures, and so unlike him in other things, that if you came across the Jordan for good I think you could show us something." Her eyes said far more than her lips did.

She was studying him from a new angle--a thoughtful, speculative angle that vaguely excited her.
"What I mean is just this," he said; "that you and I had better decide to be real friends, and not half-open enemies, each looking for a chance to spoil the other's game.

There are men in this camp who'll tell you that I keep my word.