"Well, what would you do if they tried to come back?"
"We would drive them away. One time they tried to come back, all of them, and we had to kill some of them," and he said it in a tone of regret.
"Don't you believe in killing?"
He looked at George for a moment, and then looked up into Sutoto's eyes, as he said: "No; it would do no good. Would that be the right way?" he asked with a sort of innocence that brought a blush to George's cheeks.
"No; we do not believe in killing, except when we must to protect ourselves."
"But do you have to make such wonderful things[p. 166] as those (pointing to the guns) to protect yourselves?"
John threw back his head and tried to prevent a loud laugh, at this perfectly obvious question, while he looked at the boys to see what sort of an answer would be given.
George was non-plussed for a minute. John had no business to disconcert him in that way. He turned and expected Harry to answer, but it seemed as though he had imperfectly understood it. There was no way out of it, and George tried to get his body into a proper position to answer it with dignity.
"Well, you see, the guns were not made for the purpose of killing people, but for sporting purposes."
"Do you have many wild animals in your country?" he asked naïvely.