“Well, the time’s getting very near.”
“It is.”
“In connection with the—er—removal of Smith, I should like to take Mast fully into our confidence. We have the committee this morning, and Pryce won’t be there. I’ve heard from him. It is my belief that you are right, and that Pryce cares for nothing but Hilda Auriol, and won’t come here again. You and Mast and myself will make a solid triumvirate.”
“Very well,” said Hanson. “I don’t think there’ll be any harm in it.”
So Sir John Sweetling unfolded this scheme to Mast, and outlined the horrible part which Mast himself would be expected to play in it. But he put the best appearance on it, as he did upon everything.
“Smith is a traitor,” said Sir John, sternly. “He owes everything to us. Before we came, he owned practically nothing but unsaleable land. Now he is established as a trader, and is doing really well. Suddenly he throws us over. Why? Simply because he thinks that with Lechworthy as a partner he will be able to screw a little more money out of it for himself. He betrays us all to Lechworthy, and I consider even now that disaster may come of it. For that crime—there is no other word for it—the punishment is death, and it will be for you to administer the punishment. It’s rough-and-ready justice perhaps, but it is justice. When a coloured native race and a white race live together on an island, the natives must be made to take their proper position; the penalty for treachery must be sharp and sudden if it is to act as a deterrent. I’m speaking of principles which are tried and sound—principles that have helped to build up the Empire. Hanson is fully with me. The lesson must be given, if only as a salutary warning to the other natives.”
“I’m to do this?” asked Mast, staring stupidly. “That was what you meant—that I was to kill Smith?”
“Precisely. The work of a public executioner is unpleasant work, though of course no moral responsibility attaches to it. The responsibility rests with Hanson and myself, who discussed the man’s case and decided what was to be done with him. Of course if you find yourself too shaky and nervous, we must get another man for the work. But you’ve made a good many protestations, Mast. Precisely because it is unpleasant work, you ought to accept it and to be glad of a chance of repairing the injury you have done to the members of this club.”