human
It is done--_bien_, I pay for it, responded Grassette, setting his jaw.
gpt
It is two deaths for me. Waiting and remembering, and then with the Sheriff there the other--so quick, and all.
human
His Honor has come to say something important to you,
gpt
Hold you--does he need a Sheriff to tell him when to spik? was Grassette's surly comment. Then he turned to the Governor.
human
Let us speak in French, he said, in _patois_.
gpt
This rope-twister will not understan'. He is no good--I spit at him!
human
I have come, said the Governor,
gpt
Reprieve?
human
Not yet; but there is a chance. Something has happened. A man's life is in danger, or it may be he is dead; but more likely he is alive. You took a life; perhaps you can save one now. Keeley's Gulch, the mine there!
gpt
They have found it--gold?
human
He went to find it, the man whose life is in danger. He had heard from a trapper who had been a miner once. While he was there a landslip came, and the opening to the mine was closed up.
gpt
There were two ways in. Which one did he take?
human
The only one he could take, the only one he or any one else knew. You know the other way in--you only, they say.
gpt
I found it--the easier, quick way in; a year ago I found it.
human
Was it near the other entrance?
gpt
A mile away.
human
If the man is alive--and we think he is--you are the only person that can save him. I have telegraphed the Government. They do not promise, but they will reprieve, and save your life if you find the man.
gpt
Alive or dead?
human
Alive or dead, for the act would be the same. I have an order to take you to the Gulch, if you will go; and I am sure that you will have your life if you do it. I will promise--ah, yes, Grassette, but it shall be so! Public opinion will demand it. You will do it?
gpt
To go free--_altogether_?
human
Well, but if your life is saved, Grassette?
gpt
Life--and this, in prison, shut in year after year! To do always what some one else wills, to be a slave to a warder! To have men like that over me that have been a boss of men--wasn't it that drove me to kill?--to be treated like dirt! And to go on with this, while outside there is free life, and to go where you will at your own price--no! What do I care for life? What is it to me! To live like this--ah, I would break my head against these stone walls, I would choke myself with my own hands! If I stayed here, I would kill again--I would kill--kill!
human
Then to go free altogether--that would be the wish of all the world, if you save this man's life, if it can be saved. Will you not take the chance? We all have to die some time or other, Grassette, some sooner, some later; and when you go, will you not want to take to God in your hands a life saved for a life taken? Have you forgotten God, Grassette? We used to remember Him in the Church of St. Francis down there at home.