"I can't," said Godfrey still more faintly.

"Then give me the knife, for I can."

And she did!

Had Madame but known it, that fox did not die unavenged upon her
family, for with it departed from the world all hopes of the alliance
which she desired so earnestly.

CHAPTER X

GODFREY BECOMES A HERO

The truth is that Godfrey was no true sportsman, really he did not
enjoy exterminating other and kindred life to promote his own
amusement. Like most young men, he was delighted if he made a good
shot; moreover, he had some aptitude for shooting, but unlike most
young men, to him afterwards came reflections. Who gave him the right
to kill creatures as sentient, and much more beautiful in their way
then himself, just because it was "great fun"? Of course, he was
familiar with the common answer, that day by day his body was nourished
upon the flesh of other animals destroyed for that purpose. But then
this was a matter of necessity, so arranged by a law, that personally,
he thought dreadful, but over which he had no manner of control. It was
part of the hellish system of a world built upon the foundation stone
of death.

Nature told him that he must live, and that to live, not being a
vegetarian, which for most of us is difficult in a cold climate, he
must kill, or allow others to kill for him. But to his fancy, perhaps
meticulous, between such needful slaughter and that carried out for his
own amusement, and not really for the purposes of obtaining food, there
seemed to be a great gulf fixed. To get food he would have killed
anything, and indeed, often did in later days, as he would and also
often did in after days, have destroyed noxious animals, such as tigers.

But to inflict death merely to show his own skill or to gratify man's
innate passion for hunting, which descends to him from a more primitive
period, well, that was another matter. It is true, that he was not
logical, since always he remained an ardent fisherman, partly because
he had convinced himself from various observations, that fish feel very
little, and partly for the reason that there is high authority for
fishing, although, be it admitted, with a single exception, always in
connection with the obtaining of needful food.

In these conclusions Godfrey was strengthened by two circumstances;
first, his reading, especially of Buddhistic literature, that enjoins
them so strongly, and in which he found a great deal to admire, and
secondly, by