The angry man turned on him who had protested. "You be quiet! Your chickenheartedness has spoiled our game more than once! What's the use of half measures? We're all good for prison sentences if we're caught. Mark my words this man will put us all behind the bars if we don't put him where he can do no harm."
He whom Evan had taken to be the leader said: "This is not a question for us to decide. Put it up to the chief."
So he was not the chief then. One of them left the room. Evan wondered about this leader who held himself so far above his men that he disdained to take part in their meetings. Meanwhile he waited for the return of the messenger as an accused murderer waits for his jury. Silence filled the room. Through the windows came the voices of the cheerful katydids and the shrill tree-toads. A sudden sense of the sweetness of life stabbed Evan like a poniard.
The man was not gone long, nor did he keep Evan waiting for the verdict. "Chief says I am right," he blurted out—it was the harsh-voiced one. "Orders are let him pass out before we go home to-night."
A pent breath escaped from all those in the room. A rush of conflicting emotions made Evan dizzy; fear, the determination not to show fear, and that unmanning sense of the terrible sweetness of life. Oh, for a wall behind his back!
"So be it!" said the man in front of him soberly.
The other went on: "The arrangements are left to you. How are you going to do it?"
"I have the pistol that I took from him."
"What will we do with the body?"
"Let it lie. We're ready to flit from here anyway. It will be unrecognisable before it's discovered."