“No, good friends. My poor daddy is not out of his head. Every word he says is truly so,” Eileen told them.
The dying man smiled feebly.
“When I am gone I want you two boys to take my little Eileen with you down under and see that she is brought up like a white lady and given everything that gold can buy. And I want you to watch over and protect her as if she was your own sister. Promise me you will do all this and I will give to each of you one-third of all my gold and Eileen is to have the other third. She will tell you where it is when I am gone and there I want you to bury me.”
He stretched out his hands unsteadily toward the boys and they grasped them warmly.
“Do you promise?” he asked almost inaudibly.
“We most solemnly do,” answered the boys deep from their hearts.
“Then I shall die in peace.”
Her father took Eileen’s thin, pale hand in his and kissed it.
“Good-by, little daughter. I hear your mother calling and I must go. I thought that I would live to take you down under but it is not to be. Instead your mother and me will meet you in the sweet bye and bye. And may the great, good God above us bless you.”
Her hand fell out of his and she threw her arms around his neck.