thought you would," she answered, slowly. "And I think you do right."
Her face was set white; she played nervously with the baby. "I would not
urge you; but I am glad you say so. I want you to stop; yet I could not
love you so much if I did not see you ready to play the man at such a
crisis."

"I shall give in my name with the rest," I answered.

"Hubert, it is hard to spare you--hard to send you to such danger.
But for one other thing, I am glad you are going.... They must take
Sebastian alive; they must NOT kill him."

"They will shoot him red-handed if they catch him," I answered
confidently. "A white man who sides with the blacks in an insurrection!"

"Then YOU must see that they do not do it. They must bring him in alive,
and try him legally. For me--and therefore for you--that is of the first
importance."

"Why so, Hilda?"

"Hubert, you want to marry me." I nodded vehemently. "Well, you know
I can only marry you on one condition--that I have succeeded first in
clearing my father's memory. Now, the only man living who can clear
it is Sebastian. If Sebastian were to be shot, it could NEVER be
cleared--and then, law of Medes and Persians, I could never marry you."

"But how can you expect Sebastian, of all men, to clear it, Hilda?" I
cried. "He is ready to kill us both, merely to prevent your attempting
a revision; is it likely you can force him to confess his crime, still
less induce him to admit it voluntarily?"

She placed her hands over her eyes and pressed them hard with a strange,
prophetic air she often had about her when she gazed into the future. "I
know my man," she answered, slowly, without uncovering her eyes. "I know
how I can do it--if the chance ever comes to me. But the chance must
come first. It is hard to find. I lost it once at Nathaniel's. I must
not lose it again. If Sebastian is killed skulking here in Rhodesia, my
life's purpose will have failed; I shall not have vindicated my father's
good name; and then, we can never marry."

"So I understand, Hilda, my orders are these: I am to go out and fight
for the women and children, if possible; that Sebastian shall be made
prisoner alive, and on no account to let him be killed in the open!"

"I give you no orders, Hubert. I tell you how it seems best to me.
But if Sebastian is shot dead--then you understand it must be all over
between us. I NEVER can marry you until, or unless, I have cleared my
father."

"Sebastian shall not be shot dead