“I have watched her eyes. Awful eyes. And it would be better, for he won’t repent, of course. And he swears all the time, and you know when he breaks the Third Commandment, what it says in the ‘reason annexed.’”
But the Colonel, being deprived of the privilege of instruction in the shorter Catechism in his youth, was quite beyond his depth.
“‘Reason annexed?’ What on earth are you driving at?”
“You know what the reason annexed to the Third Commandment says, Uncle Colonel, about the breakers of the commandment.”
“No,” confessed the Colonel. “What does it say?”
“That ‘the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.’ So you see he can’t escape, and it would be better if he died very soon.”
“Good Lord!” muttered the Colonel, appalled at the relentless theory of the divine administration of the universe. “But what about the Sixth Commandment? Surely that forbids killing.”
“No, Uncle Colonel,” replied the young theologian, “not always. For it says it ‘forbiddeth the taking away of our own life or the life of our neighbour unjustly,’ and of course it wouldn’t be ‘unjustly,’ you see.”
“Great Heavens, boy! Don’t fancy yourself Almighty God. Better leave these things to Him.”
“I do, Uncle Colonel,” said Paul with great solemnity. “Of course I do.”