"The fair kind, I trust. Civilized warfare. The trade of soldiering."
"I hain't nuver follered no unfa'r sort nuther," disclaimed Boone, and his companion smiled enigmatically while he replied meditatively,
"What is fair or unfair—what is courageous or cowardly—is largely a matter of viewpoint. Some day I dare say you'll go out into the world beyond the hills and out there you'll find that gouging eyes and chewing ears isn't called fair—that shooting an enemy from ambush isn't called courageous."
That was a doctrine, Boone felt, which savoured of sacrilege. If it were categorically true then his own people were cowards—and to his ardent hero worship the Gregories and the Wellvers were exemplars of high bravery, yet this man was no ordinary individual, and he spoke from a wisdom and experience based on a lifetime of soldiering. A seed of dilemma had fallen into the fallow soil of the lad's questioning mind, and as he stood there in a swirl of perplexity he heard the other voice explaining with a sort of comforting reassurance, "As I said, notions of right and wrong vary with locality and custom—but it's good for a man to know more than one standard—one set of ideas. If you ever go out in the world you'll need that knowledge."
After a period of reflection the boy demanded bluntly,
"Whar-at war ye a'soldierin'?"
For the first time, McCalloway's glance hardened and his tone sharpened. He had not meant to throw open the discussion to a wide review of his own past.
"If you and I are going to be good friends, you mustn't ask too many questions," he said curtly. "It doesn't make a boy popular."
"I axes yore pardon; I didn't aim at no offence." The apology was prompt, yet puzzled, and carried with it a note of injured dignity. "I 'lowed ye proffered ter tell me things—an' even ef ye told me all ye knowed, I wouldn't go 'round blabbin' no-whars. I knows how ter hold my own counsel."
This time it was the seasoned man of experience who flushed. He felt that he had first invited and then rebuffed a natural inquiry, and so he, in turn, spoke apologetically: "I shall tell you things that may be useful—but I sha'n't answer every question."