Church was out.
It gathered around the seeming corpse, and stared hard at it. Dad and
Dave spoke at the same time.
"Why," they said, "it's the cove with the bear-skin cap!" Sure enough it
was. The clergyman knelt down and felt the man's pulse; then went and
brought a bottle from his valise--he always carried the bottle, he said,
in case of snake-bite and things like that--and poured some of the contents
down the man's throat. The colour began to come to the man's face. The
clergyman gave him some more, and in a while the man opened his eyes.
They rested on Dad, who was bending benignly over him. He seemed to
recognise Dad. He stared for some time at him, then said something in a
feeble whisper, which the clergyman interpreted--"He wishes you--" looking
at Dad--"to get what's in his swag if he dies." Dad nodded, and his
thoughts went sadly back to the day he turned the poor devil out of
the barn.
They carried the man inside and placed him on the sofa. But soon he took
a turn. He sank quickly, and in a few moments he was dead. In a few
moments more nearly everyone had gone.
"While you are here," Dad said to the clergyman, in a soft voice, "I'll
open the swag.
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