CHAPTER 3.
Then came a voice that startled the two priests, for it seemed that a fourth man had entered the room, so changed was it from the musical voice of Pierre.
"Father Victor, the roan is a strong horse.

May I take him ?" "Pierre!" and the priest reached out his bony hands.
But the boy did not seem to notice or to understand.
"It is a long journey, and I will need a strong horse.

It must be eight hundred miles to that town." "Pierre, what claim has he upon you?
What debt have you to repay ?" And Pierre le Rouge answered: "He loved my mother." "You are going ?" The boy asked in astonishment: "Would you not have me go, Father ?" And Jean Paul Victor could not meet the sorrowful blue eyes.
He bowed his head and answered: "My child, I would have you go.

But promise with your hand in mine that you will come back to me when your father is buried." The lean fingers caught the extended hand of Pierre and froze about it.
"But first I have a second duty in the southland." "A second ?" "You taught me to shoot and to use a knife.

Once you said: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' Father Victor, my father was killed by another man." "Pierre, dear lad, swear to me here on this cross that you will not raise your hands against the murderer.