What else he would have said or done, what new token of his repulsive favour he would have bestowed on me, I know not; but his wild antics were cut short by the sound of firing, rapid and oft repeated, which came to us from the shore of the cove below. At the first report he let go my hand and went to his window, from which he drew the curtain, so that I saw the whole bay lit with silver light from a full-risen moon, and the distant peaks as grim beacons above a land of rest; a land which once, perchance, flowered with exotic luxuriance, but which now wore the snow-silk mantle that had fallen upon countless centuries of its past. Yet the whole glory and enhancement of the perfect peace were for the moment ruined, for out on the snow there was a hungry crowd of starving souls, crying, I doubt not, for bread; and those to whom they cried answered them with their muskets, dyeing the glittering white with many a red stream, bringing many a hungered wretch to his last sleep in the frozen night of death. And out over the silence of the hills the cries for mercy rang as in bitterness to God, the dreadful cries of the weak, down trodden beneath the feet of those who knew not God, the last scream of perishing souls, the sobs of strong men in their agony. In vain I closed my ears, shut out the sight from my eyes. The picture came to me again and again, the sound of the voices would not be hushed, and in turn I cried to Black--
"For God's sake, help those men, if you have anything but the instincts of a brute in you!"
He shrugged his shoulders defiantly. "What am I to do?" he asked.
"Stop the devil's work, and give the men bread, as I've just given you your life!"
There was a pause before he answered me, and I could see that an old nature and a new impulse fought within him. He did not give me any direct answer to my earnest appeal, but he snatched a rifle from a case and said--
"Take that pistol, and come on; you've fooled me once, and we'll make it even numbers. But it ain't as easy as cutting cheese, and there's blood to let."
I followed him down the passage to the beach, where he blew a whistle sharp and shrill, and the note had a strange ring as it echoed through the cañon.