rd
to collect his thoughts to face this new situation. He had dreamed
of falling among savages in these backwoods; but he had fallen among
folk gentle in manner and speech, anxious to show him courtesy; folk
to whom (as in an instant he divined) truth and uprightness were
dearer than life and judged as delicately as by his own family at
home in Devonshire. How came they here? Who was this girl whose
eyes he avoided lest they should weigh him, as a sister's might, in
the scales of honour?

A man may go through life cherishing many beliefs which are
internecine foes; unaware of their discordance, or honestly persuaded
that within him the lion and the lamb are lying down together,
whereas in truth his fate has never drawn the bolts of their separate
cages. John had his doubts concerning God; but something deeper than
reason within him detested a lie. Yet as a soldier he had accepted
without examination the belief that many actions vile in peace are in
war permissible, even obligatory; a loose belief, the limits of which
no man in his regiment--perhaps no man in the two armies--could have
defined. In war you may kill; nay, you must; but you must do it by
code, and with many exceptions and restrictions as to the how and
when. In war (John supposed) you may lie; nay, again, in certain
circumstances you must.

With this girl's eyes upon him, worshipping him for a hero, John
discovered suddenly that here and now he could not. For an instant,
as if along a beam of light, he looked straight into Militarism's
sham and ugly heart.

Yes, he saw it quite clearly, and was resolved to end the lie.
But for the moment, in his bodily weakness, his will lagged behind
his brain. As a sick man tries to lift a hand and cannot, so he
sought to rally his will to meet the crisis and was dismayed to find
it benumbed and half-asleep.

They were ascending the slope, and still as they went the
Commandant's voice was questioning him.

"Through the Wilderness! That was no small exploit, my friend, and
it puzzles me how you came to attempt it; for you were severely
wounded, were you not?"

"I received two wounds at Fort Carillon, monsieur. The proposal to
make across the woods was not mine. It came from the French sergeant
in command of our boat."

"So--so. I ought to have guessed it. You were a whole boat's party
then, at starting?" John felt the crisis near; but the Commandant's
mind was discursive, and he paused to wave a p