"
"It shall be done," said Oliver Pollock, "and I like your spirit in
wishing it to be done."
It was a promise that he kept faithfully.
When they reached their room they found their rifles and other arms in
perfect order. Lieutenant Diego Bernal had taken good care of them. Long
Jim picked up his rifle and handled it lovingly.
"It feels good jest to tech it," he said. "I didn't think I could ever
like a Spaniard ez well ez I do that thar little leftenant. I'll miss him
when we go ploughin' up the river."
They were preparing to leave the room and breathe all out of doors, as Sol
put it, when they were stopped by the entrance of Father Montigny. They
crowded around him, expressing anew the gratitude that they had shown to
him at the house of the Governor General.
"It was really you, Father Montigny, who saved everything," said Paul.
The priest smiled and shook his head.
"No," he said, "It was not I, but your courage and tenacity. I had the
rare good fortune to find the letter among the Chickasaws and obtain it.
It was sent by the Shawnees and Miamis as a sort of token, a war belt as
it were. It was only a remote chance that brought it back to New Orleans,
and even then Alvarez confidently expected to be Governor General.
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