Slowly he turned his face towards his comrades. It was white.
“Send them away,” he said, “but tell them to call the others and get ready. I am going down to the cape to-night, to that ship. I am going to kill a man.”
Ford looked at him wonderingly. Adams, who understood, spoke a few whispered words to the natives, who quickly left the room.
“Tom.”
“Yes, Ted.”
“Are all the women and children asleep?”
Adams nodded, and Stenhouse silently motioned to him and Ford to be seated. He remained standing.
“Jim Ford,” he said quietly, “look at me”—he drew his hand down the distorted side of his face—“and tell me what you would do to a man who made you look like this.”
“I would have his life if I swung for it.”
“Well, I am going to have this man's life. I shall not be hanged for it, but if I am killed, I look to you, Jim, and you Tom, to stand to my wife and children.”