"Simply to listen intelligently--sympathetically if you can," he declared. "I want to make my position clear to you if I can. You heard what that poor young woman called me? Probably you would have used the same word yourself. A murderer!" "Yes!" Wrayson muttered. "I heard!" "When I came back from the Soudan twelve years ago, I had been instrumental in killing some thousands of brave men, I dare say I had killed a score or so with my own hand. Was I a murderer then?" "No!" Wrayson answered. "It was a different thing." "Then killing is not necessarily murder," the Colonel remarked. "Good! Now take the case of a man like Morris Barnes. He belonged to the class of humanity which you can call by no other name than that of vermin. Whatever he touched he defiled. He was without a single good instinct, a single passable quality. Wherever he lived, he bred contamination. Whoever touched him was the worse for it. His influence upon the world was an unchanging one for evil. Put aside sentiment for one moment, false sentiment I should say, and ask yourself what possible sin can there be in taking the life of such a one. If he had gone on four legs instead of two, his breed would have been exterminated centuries ago." "We are not the judges," Wrayson began, weakly enough. "We are, sir," the Colonel thundered. "For what else have we been given brains, the moral sense, the knowledge of good or evil? There are those amongst us who become decadents, whose presence amongst us breeds corruption, whose dirty little lives are like the trail of a foul insect across the page of life. I hold it a just and moral thing to rid the world of such a creature. The sanctity of human life is the canting cry of the falsely sentimental. Human life is sacred or not, according to its achievements. Such a one as Morris Barnes I would brush away like a poisonous fly." "Bentham!" Wrayson faltered. "I killed him, sir!" the Colonel answered, "and others of his kidney before him. Louise knew it. I argued with her as I am doing with you, but it was useless. Nevertheless, I have lived as seemed good to me." "There is the law," Wrayson said, with a horrified glance towards Louise. He understood now. The Colonel bowed his head. "I am prepared," the Colonel answered, "to pay the penalty of all reformers." There was a ring at the bell. Wrayson threw open the door. A small boy stood there. He held a piece of paper in his hand. "The lidy said," he declared, "that the white-headed gentleman would give me 'arf a crown for this 'ere!" Wrayson gave him the money, and stepped back into the room. He gave the paper to the Colonel, who read it calmly, first to himself and then aloud. * * * * * "I leave you to your conshens. He may have been bad, but he was good to me! "AGNES B." * * * * * The Colonel's eyes grew very soft.