CHAPTER XVI.
CONSPIRACY--WARNING.
Ralph was not permitted to return to the village that night--his sturdy friend Forrester insisting upon his occupying with him the little lodge of his own, resting on the borders of the settlement, and almost buried in the forest.

Here they conversed until a late hour, previous to retiring; the woodman entering more largely into his own history than he had done before.

He suffered painfully from the occurrences of the day: detailed the manner in which he had been worked upon by Munro to take part in the more fearful transaction with the guard--how the excitement of the approaching conflict had defeated his capacities of thought, and led him on to the commission of so great a part of the general offence.
Touching the initial affair with the squatters, he had no compunctious scruples.

That was all fair game in his mode of thinking, and even had blood been spilled more freely than it was, he seemed to think he should have had no remorse.

But on the subject of the murder of the guard, for so he himself called his crime, his feeling was so intensely agonizing that Ralph, though as much shocked as himself at the events, found it necessary to employ sedative language, and to forbear all manner of rebuke.
At an early hour of the morning, they proceeding in company to the village--Forrester having to complete certain arrangements prior to his flight; which, by the advice of Colleton, he had at once determined upon.