“Why, certainly,” replied the Major in an absent-minded way; and then presently he went on: “Do not interpret my hesitation as unwillingness to accommodate you. It is well you came just when you did, for within half an hour I myself will be starting for the mountains and my mind was pre-occupied with my own little preparations.”
“Can’t you come with us, Major?” asked Grant.
“But I won’t be depriving you of your gun?” enquired Roderick simultaneously.
“I answer ‘no’ to both questions,” was the smiling response. “I am going out on one of my lonesome excursions—to commune with Nature face to face for a brief spell. And when I go I need no rifle—even the very deer there are my trustful friends.”
Then turning he took down his rifle from its accustomed place and brought it over to Roderick.
“This old Springfield has served me well,” he said, smiling in his own magnificent way. “It was my friend in dark days of need. In my lifetime, gentlemen, I have never spilled the blood of any living thing wantonly, and I do not believe man is justified in taking the life of even a worm on the pathway, a rabbit in the hills, cattle or sheep in the fields, or a deer in the wilds unless it is for food and to sustain life.”
Then suddenly looking at Grant the Major said: “I understand W. R. Grady is up in the hills?”
“Yes, so I have heard.”
“What is he doing? Looking for a mine?”
“Possibly. They say he is at the Thomas Boarding House most of the time up at Battle.”