'Well, she done it all right; she done it when she told him she was going to change her will.'
'Oh! What a terrible man.'
'I've known of fellows that was bumped off for less than what this guy will get,' said Brown. 'Back in the land of the free and the home of the brave, you can get it done to almost any guy for a hundred smackers.'
'One hundred smackers? What is a smacker? My English, she is not so good.'
'I've noticed that, kiddo, but don't worry; I'll learn you.'
'Now I must cook the meat for our breakfast,' said Annette, 'if you will cut off a few slices for me from the hind quarters.'
'Sure.' He felt in his pockets. 'Where's my knife? Oh, yes, I remember,' and he turned to Jane. 'Say, Miss,' he called, 'let me have my knife if you are through with it.'
'You haven't any knife,' laughed Jane, 'but I'll loan you mine.' Brown rubbed his chin. 'That's right; I did lose, didn't I?'
While Annette was cooking the antelope, the others busied themselves selecting such things as they thought they would need and could carry on the march. Tibbs was busy repacking suitcases under the direction of Alexis. Jane gathered her weapons together and then fastened a small hand-bag to the belt that supported her shorts. It was such a bag as a woman uses to carry her money, keys, lipstick, and such odds and ends. Other than this and her weapons, Jane selected nothing more than what she wore.
Brown, who was wearing aviator's boots, chose to take along an extra pair of shoes and several pairs of socks. He also crammed the contents of a carton of cigarettes into various pockets and inside his shirt. These things, with a supply of matches, and the fateful hand-axe, constituted his entire equipment. He knew the bitterness of heavy packs.
As Annette grilled the meat over the coals, her eyes were attracted by something at the edge of the fire, among the cooling ashes. It was a bit of burned fabric to which three buttons remained attached. With a piece of stick, she turned it over. As it had been lying flat on the ground near the edge of the fire, the underneath portion of the fabric was not burned; the color and pattern remained.
A look of recognition entered her eyes; then they half closed in brooding, speculative contemplation of her find.
Brown wandered over toward the fire. 'I'll finish the meat,' he said; 'you go and gather together what you are going to take.'
'I don't know what to take,' said the girl. 'I can't carry very much.'
'Take whatever you need, girlie,' he said; 'I'll help you carry the stuff. Take extra shoes if you have them and plenty of stockings and a warm wrap. Unless I'm mistaken, we are going to need a lot of shoes and stockings, especially you. Them things you are wearing was never meant to walk in nohow.'
'I have two pair of low-heeled shoes,' said the girl.
'Then throw them things away and take the low-heeled ones.'
'All right,' she said; 'I'll go and get my things together. While I am gone, you might like to look at this,' and she touched the piece of burned fabric with the stick she was holding.
Brown picked the thing up and looked at it; then he whistled as he raised his eyes to the person of Prince Alexis Sborov. Annette walked away to make up her bundle. Tibbs was still busy packing. Jane was seated on a rotting log, deep in thought. Brown was whistling; he seemed very much pleased about something. Presently he looked up at the others.
'Come and get it,' he called.
'Beg pardon,' said Tibbs, 'come and get what?'
'Chuck,' explained Brown.
''Chuck'!' sneered Sborov.
Jane rose. 'I guess we eat,' she said, 'and after all, I am hungry. I didn't think I should be.'
They all gathered around the fire where Brown had laid strips of cooked meat on a little bed of clean twigs close beside the coals.
'Come ahead folks; pitch in,' said Brown.
'Tibbs,' said Alexis, 'you may fetch me a piece not too rare nor too well done—about medium.'
Brown looked up in undisguised disgust. He jabbed a stick into a piece of meat and tossed it at Alexis. 'Here, Napoleon,' he said, 'we are sorry we ain't got no gold platters; but the keeper of the imperial pantry ran out on us and no one else ain't got no key.'
Alexis gave Brown a venomous look, but he picked up the sorry-looking piece of meat and took a bite of it.
'This is terrible,' he said; 'it's burned on the outside and raw on the inside. My stomach will never be able to stand such cooking as this. I shall not eat it.'
'Well, ain't that just too bad!' said Brown. 'Let's all cry.'
'You better eat it, Alexis,' said Jane. 'You'll get awfully hungry before night.'
'Tibbs will prepare my food hereafter,' said Alexis haughtily. 'I shall eat apart.'
'That will suit me,' Brown assured him, 'and the farther apart, the better.'
'Come, come,' said Jane, 'don't start that all over again; we've had enough of it.'
'O.K. Miss,' assented Brown; 'but there is something I'd like to ask the grand duke. I notice that he's changed his coat. That was a mighty nice coat he was wearing last night, and I thought if he wasn't going to use it no more, I'd like to buy it from him—that is, if nothing ain't happened to it.'
Alexis looked up quickly, his face paling. 'I do not sell my old clothes,' he said. 'When I am through with it, I'll give it to you.'
'That's mighty nice of you,' said Brown. 'May I see it now? I'd like to find out if it fits me.'
'Not now, my man; it's packed with my other things.'
'All of it?' demanded Brown.
'All of it? What do you mean? Of course it's all packed.'
'Well, here's one piece 'you forgot, Mister,' and Brown held up the charred remnant of the sleeve with the three buttons still remaining on it.
Sborov's face took on a ghastly hue; his eyes stared wildly at the bit of cloth, but almost as quickly he regained his self-possession.
'Some more American humor?' he asked. 'That thing doesn't belong to me.'
'It looks a powerful like the coat you was wearing last night,' said Brown. 'Annette thinks so, too; but Tibbs ought to know; he's your valet. Ever see this before, Tibbs?'
The valet coughed. 'I—er—'
'Come over and take a good look at it,' said Brown.
Tibbs approached and examined the piece of fabric carefully, turning it over and wiping the ashes from the buttons.
'When did you see that last, Tibbs?' demanded Brown.
'I—really—' He glanced apprehensively at Sborov.
'You're a liar, Tibbs,' shouted the prince. 'I never had a coat like that; I never saw it before. It's not mine, I tell you.'
'Tibbs didn't say nothing,' Brown reminded him; 'he ain't opened his trap except to say 'I—er.' He never said it was off your coat; but you're going to, ain't you, Tibbs?'
'It looks very much like it, sir,' replied the Englishman. 'Of course, I couldn't exactly take oath to it, seeing as how it's so badly burned.'
Brown turned his gaze upon Alexis. 'The blood must have spattered some when you hit her.'
'Don't!' screamed Alexis; 'my God! don't. I never touched her, I tell you.'
'Tell it to the judge,' said Brown. 'You'd better hang on to that evidence, Annette,' he added; 'the judge might like to know about that, too.'
Alexis had quickly gained control of himself. 'It was my coat,' he said; 'someone stole it out of my luggage; it's what you call in America a frame.'
'Let's leave this whole terrible matter to the courts,' said Jane; 'it's not for us to try to decide, and constantly harping on it only makes our situation all the more bitter.'
Brown nodded. 'I guess you're right, Miss, as usual.'
