"
After supper the promised key was secretly conveyed to me, and I had
not the least difficulty in liberating my friend in misfortune. Luckily
the man who took me to Marcos left us alone for some time, and I related
my conversation with the fat woman.
He jumped up, and, seizing my hand, wrung it till I almost screamed
with pain.
"My good friend," he said, "you have a noble, generous soul, have done
me the greatest service it is possible for one man to render to another.
You have, in fact, now placed me in a position to--enjoy my night's
rest. Good night, and may Heaven's angels put it in my power to reward
you at some future time!"
The fellow was overdoing it a little, I thought; then, when I had seen
him safely locked up for the night, I walked back to the kitchen slowly
and very thoughtfully.
CHAPTER XI
I walked thoughtfully back, because, after rendering that unimportant
service to Marcos, I began to experience sundry qualms of conscience
and inward questionings concerning the strict morality of the whole
proceeding. Allowing that I had done something very kind, charitable,
and altogether praiseworthy in getting the poor fellow's unfortunate
feet out of the stocks, did all that justify the cajolery I had
practised to attain my object? Or, to put it briefly in the old familiar
way: Does the end sanctify the means? Assuredly it does in some cases,
very easy to be imagined.
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