"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.

"What is that?"

"Such an aid would be a direct act of rebellion against authority on
my part, which would be severely punished. Of course," he asserted,
with conscious righteousness, "I should not consider that for a moment
as far as my own personal safety is concerned. But my cause would
suffer. You forget, sir, that we are doing here a great and good work.