“The doctor’s doing all that,” he said. “You see, there’s no danger now. There’s no one left to lead them against me.”
“Then the colonel is—”
“Yes,” he said gravely, “he is dead. I shot him.”
“In the attack?”
“Not exactly; the fighting was over. A very short affair, Martin. They never had a chance; and as soon as two or three had fallen and the rest saw me, they threw up the sponge.”
“And the colonel?”
“He fought well. He killed two of my fellows; then a lot of them flung themselves on him and disarmed him.”
“And you killed him in cold blood?”
The President smiled slightly.
“Six men fell in that affair—five besides the colonel. Does it strike you that you, in fact, killed the five to enable you to run away with the girl you loved?”