Leaving the fire he moved to a window, and stood looking out upon the windy twilight. From the back of the house came a sound of voices and of footsteps. The Colonel put up his snuffbox and brushed a grain from his ruffles. “Enter two murderers!” he said briskly. “Will you have them here, Haward, or shall we go into the hall?” “Light all the candles, Juba,” ordered the master. “Here, I think, Colonel, where the stage will set them off. Juba, go ask Mr. MacLean and Saunderson to bring their prisoners here.” As he spoke, he turned from the contemplation of the night without to the brightly lit room. “This is a murderous fellow, this Hugon,” he said, as he took his seat in a great chair drawn before a table. “I have heard Colonel Byrd argue in favor of imitating John Rolfe’s early experiment, and marrying the white man to the heathen. We are about to behold the result of such an union.” “I would not have the practice universal,” said the Colonel coolly, “but ’twould go far toward remedying loss of scalps in this world, and of infidel souls hereafter. Your sprightly lover is a most prevailing missionary. But here is our Huguenot-Monacan.” MacLean, very wet and muddy, with one hand wrapped in a blood-stained rag, came in first. “We found them hidden in the bushes at the turn of the road,” he said hastily. “The schoolmaster was more peaceably inclined than any Quaker, but Hugon fought like the wolf that he is. Can’t you hang him out of hand, Haward? Give me a land where the chief does justice while the king looks the other way!” He turned and beckoned. “Bring them in, Saunderson.” There was no discomposure in the schoolmaster’s dress, and as little in his face or manner. He bowed to the two gentlemen, then shambled across to the fire, and as best he could held out his bound hands to the grateful blaze. “May I ask, sir,” he said, in his lifeless voice, “why it is that this youth and I, resting in all peace and quietness beside a public road, should be set upon by your servants, overpowered, bound, and haled to your house as to a judgment bar?”