He is a traitor, a renegade, a malefactor. He has
sinned against every law, he has written his own death-warrant. He
deserves to die, he will die! That is a certain thing. He would have been
dead before now, but for me! Do you know why I have made them spare his
life?"
"No!" I answered. "Who are they? and who is to be his executioner?
Surely, if he is all that you say there are laws under whose ban he must
have come. It is not safe to talk like this of life and death here. All
those things are arranged nowadays in the courts."
She smiled at me scornfully.
"Never mind that," she said. "You speak now of things which you do not
understand. I want to tell you why I would not let them kill him."
"Well?"
"It is because if he is killed the secret goes with him. Never mind how
he came by it, or who he is. It is sufficient for you to know that he has
it. Up to now, he has resisted even torture. You remember the color of
his hair? It went like that in a night, but he held out. Now he knows
that he is going to die, and he is seeking for some one to whom he may
pass it on.
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