Trent, but I neglected to inform you further that I am a captured
Free Trader, condemned to _la Longue Traverse_, and that I have in
vain tried to procure elsewhere the means of escape."

Then the clergyman understood. The full significance of the
intruder's presence flashed over his little pink face in a trouble
of uneasiness. The probable consequences of such a bit of charity
as his visitor proposed almost turned him sick with excitement.

"You expect to have them of me!" he cried, getting his voice at
last.

"Certainly," assured his interlocutor, crossing his legs
comfortably. "Don't you see the logic of events forces me to think
so? What other course is open to you? I am in this country
entirely within my legal rights as a citizen of the Canadian
Commonwealth. Unjustly, I am seized by a stronger power and
condemned unjustly to death. Surely you admit the injustice?"

"Well, of course you know--the customs of the country--it is hardly
an abstract question--" stammered Crane, still without grasp on the
logic of his argument "But as an abstract question the injustice is
plain," resumed the Free Trader, imperturbably. "And against plain
injustice it strikes me there is but one course open to an
acknowledged institution of abstract--and concrete--morality. The
Church must set itself against immorality, and you, as the Church's
representative, must get me a rifle."

"You forget one thing," rejoined Crane.