But he has a boy's heart still. He could see the entrance gateway and the grand portals of what heguessed must be the Company offices and the Governor's suite. It slashed his palms to the bone, severing thesinews in a quick flush of bright blood. In the firelight Hal studied his band as they ate, with ravenousappetite, their dinner of smoked meat.
At last the full steely light of day struck as the sun rose from theeastern ocean. It had the hard iridescent shine of new-cut coal. Heswept the loose soil back over them, and tamped it down with the flatof his hand. I cannot have a disloyalCompany servant spreading dissension and sedition throughout thecolony.
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