“Rodney, you argue well. Where did you learn? I forget your father. You are indeed his son. Must you go? Well, here is a packet, of which I wish you to take charge. When you learn that I am dead, and the doctor tells me my heart is about worn out, you are to open the packet and I am sure will do right with what you find there.”
Rodney hesitated, and the man, noticing his hesitation, said, “You will not regret it. You believe me, don’t you?”
Looking into the face of the man, Rodney had it not in his heart to say no. Somehow, and he was almost ashamed to admit it to himself, he did believe. This man, who, under the guise of friendliness, once had robbed him, this gambler, literally compelled his liking.
When Allison had finished the business for which he had come, and was about to leave, he noticed the camp doctor hurrying to the Chevalier’s cabin. With fear in his heart he followed. The fear was realized. The man who had been known to him as the “Chevalier” was dead. Rodney helped prepare the body. He had performed similar services for friends who had died in camp. It was not a duty from which he would flinch. Yet he started back, his face was pale. 269 The doctor noticed the agitation and sought the cause. Young Allison was staring at tattoo marks on the right arm of the body. These represented a closed hand gripping a sword. Rodney had seen the exact counterpart of that on the right arm of little Louis, who had told him, “Papa put it there!”
CHAPTER XXIX
WHAT THE PACKAGE CONTAINED
“What’s the trouble here, Rodney?” asked Angus, shouldering his way in through a throng of the curious, assembled about the door of the cabin.
The hearty voice of his friend helped Rodney to collect himself. “There has been a sudden death; he was a man I knew,” he replied.