“Are––are you sure? I didn’t even know she was sick.”
The man looked keenly at his caller. “I have no 265 reason to doubt the report. It was said she took her father’s death very much to heart, and, what with not being well,––she had nursed a friend, I think,––she was taken down with a fever. You must have known her?
“Why, she was my playmate. I––I can’t realize she’s dead.” Then hurriedly saying good-bye he went away, seeing little and thinking much, and the “Chevalier” lay looking at the blank wall.
On arriving home Rodney went directly to his room. He shrank from telling the news to his mother. He must first think it over. The girl in the red cloak who had stamped her foot and called him a simpleton, ah, she was the one he missed, and not her who had laughed in his face that winter night and wheedled him as she laughed.
Mrs. Allison was greatly shocked. Rodney had been ashamed to tell his mother of the time Lisbeth had tricked him, and now it somehow seemed disloyal to the girl to speak of it. Well, he would forget it, and so resolving he worked as never before. There was work to do, both for himself and Zeb; moreover, it was profitable.
When he next had occasion to visit the encampment he called on the “Chevalier” as soon as he arrived. All the way to the camp the question had been in his mind: How did it happen that the man knew the Danesfords, spoke of them as persons with whom he was quite familiar? He met Angus, who said, “Ridin’ 266 back along soon?” and, on being told, replied, “I reckon I’ll wait fer ye.”
Rodney found the “Chevalier” unusually bright and nimble of wit. “I suppose, Allison, you think the war is over with the surrender of Burgoyne? Most of your people lose no opportunity to express that opinion. I notice, however, that the British army marches about the country pretty much as it pleases. Why, my lad, the war is just begun.”
“Certainly it’s a good beginning,” was the lad’s rather dry response.
The “Chevalier” appreciated it. There was a twinkle in his eyes. It was evident he liked to draw Rodney out. He said: “What would you people do if by some accident, for you can never hope to win unless some other powerful nation helps you, what would you do if you should win? All the colonies would be by the ears in less than a year.”
“Perhaps you never heard what ‘Sam’ Adams told the Quakers who said they wished to obey such government as the Lord placed over them.”