"This hath an ugly look," quoth he, stroking his beard the while he frowned upon me. "Why killed you him?"
"'Twas either that, or being killed myself," I answered; "and most of us choose life in place of death."
He paused a moment with a puzzled look, then turned to Harland, saying:
"You would have killed this man, then, eh?"
"Nay, not so. We had him down and were about to bind him, when he escaped us by a trick. Then we called on him to yield, but he withstood us."
"And why would ye have bound him?"
"Because our orders were to take him, dead or living."
"Ah! whose orders?"
"Our godly chaplain's."
"What! Dr. Ferguson's?'"