“Hang diplomicy ef a feller’s got ter have it at ther cost uv his honor. Frank done right, an’ I’ll back him up.”
The professor was in despair.
“You do not seem to comprehend that we may not have a chance to back him up. He may be carried off and imprisoned, and we may never see him again. We may be warned to get out of the country—or we may be arrested.”
Scotch gasped out the final words in a manner that showed he was alarmed beyond measure by what had taken place. It was with no small difficulty that Ephraim repressed a feeling of contempt for the agitated little man.
The blood of the boy from Vermont was thoroughly aroused, and, boylike, he could not be easily suppressed. His respect, admiration and love for Frank were unbounded. To him Frank’s arrest by the civil guards seemed one of the greatest outrages ever committed.
To the professor it also seemed an outrage, but the little man dared not express himself after the manner of the boy. Scotch, who was naturally timid, had read much of the Spaniards, and he feared them. What he had seen that day caused him to fear them still more.
“Be quiet—do be quiet!” he urged, as Ephraim continued to express his feelings. “If some one should hear you—some one who understood English!”
“Wal, what ef they did?”
“They are a dreadful people! Think how they delight in shedding blood! Think of the spectacle we witnessed this day! Why, they seem to revel in gore. Women and children laugh and shout to see horses ripped open! And their delight seemed the greatest when it appeared that the bull had killed one of his tormentors, or was about to do so.”
“Wal,” confessed Ephraim, “I be hung ef I didn’t feel ez ef I’d kinder like ter see ther critter sail in and kill ther hull gang.”