"I wish I had never come here!" he said bitterly. "The first thing I have
done is to kill an inoffensive and intelligent creature."
"Intelligent, perhaps," said Jack, "but inoffensive--not by a long shot!
Where'd we have been if you hadn't killed him? They'd have made mincemeat
of us."
"No," replied Edmund, sorrowfully shaking his head, "it wasn't necessary.
The noise would have sufficed; and I ought to have known it."
"Why didn't you shout, then? That scared the first one," put in Henry,
whose soul, it must be said, was not overflowing with sympathy.
"I did what I thought was best at the moment," Edmund replied, with a
broken voice. "They were so many and so threatening that I imagined my
voice alone might not be effective. But I'm sorry, sorry!"
"Henry, you're a fool!" cried the sympathetic Jack. "Come now, Edmund,"
he continued, kindly laying a hand on his shoulder, "what you did was the
only thing under heaven that could have been done. You're wrong to blame
yourself. By Jo, if you hadn't done it I would!"
But Edmund only shook his head, as if refusing to be comforted. It was
the first sign of weakness that we had seen in our incomparable leader,
but I am sure it only increased our respect for him--at least that's true
of Jack and me.
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