IN PRISON
Their fortress prison was built of brick, but it was not a particularly
somber place. They were all put in one large room which had two windows
barred with iron; but plenty of air came in at the windows, and the place,
though bare, was clean.
"Well," said Lieutenant Bernal, when they were inside, "tell me all that
occurred before Bernardo Galvez."
Paul was again the spokesman telling everything that was said as literally
as he could.
"I have an impression," said Lieutenant Bernal, "although my impressions
are usually wrong and my memory is always weak, that you have scored, at
least partially. You have sowed the fertile crop of suspicion in the mind
of Bernardo Galvez. He has shown that by making Francisco Alvarez
virtually a prisoner, also, and you have a powerful advocate in the Señor
Pollock, the great merchant, and I may add the great diplomat, also."
"How long do you think we will be kept in here?" asked Shif'less Sol,
looking around at the room, which, though wide, was by no means so wide as
the forests of Kentucky.
"I do not know," replied the lieutenant, smiling--he understood the look
of the shiftless one, "but you shall not be ill-treated, and do not feel
that any disgrace lies upon you. This is a military prison. Good men have
been confined here; I myself, for instance, because of some little breach
of military discipline magnified by my officers into a fault. Oh, you
shall not suffer!"
He bustled about cheerily. He had food and drink brought to them, and then
he departed, volunteering to see that their private property on "The
Galleon" was saved and brought to them.
No one spoke for a little while after his going, and then the silence was
broken by a long, dismal sigh. It was drawn up from the depths of Long
Jim's chest.
"Are you sick, Jim?" asked Henry.
"Yes, Henry," replied Jim in a melancholy tone, "I'm sick; sick uv all
this jawin', sick uv seein' things pulled here, an' then pulled yonder,
sick uv hearin' people lyin', knowin' that they're lyin', and knowin' that
other people know that they're lyin'."
"Why, Jim," said Paul, who had a twinkle in his eye, "that's diplomacy,
and the man who practises it is called a diplomatist or diplomat. It's
considered a great accomplishment."
"It ain't so considered by me, an' I'm bein' heard from," said Long Jim
with great emphasis. "Them dy-plo-may-tists or dy-plo-maws may reckon
theirselves pow'ful big boys, but I've got another an' better name fur
'em, and it's spelled with jest four letters, uv which the furst is l an'
the last is r, an' them that comes in between are i an' a, with the i
first. Why, Paul, it makes me plum' sick, all these goin's on. In a big
town like this, full uv Spaniards an' Frenchmen an' Injuns an' niggers an'
mixed breeds, an' the Lord knows what, you can never tell nuth'in' 'bout
nobody, 'cept that he says what he don't believe, an' that he ain't what
he is.
"I guess I'm in love more with the big woods than ever. Thar things is
what they is. A buffaler don't pretend to be a b'ar. He'd be ashamed to be
caught tryin' to play sech a trick, an' a b'ar has the same respect fur
hisself; he'd never dream uv sayin' in his b'ar language, 'Look at me,
admire me, see what a fine big buffaler I am!' An' I've a lot uv respeck
fur the Injun, too. He's an Injun an' he don't say he ain't. He don't come
sneakin' along claimin' that he's an old friend uv the family, he jest up
an' lets drive his tomahawk at your head, ef he gits the chance, an' makes
no bones 'bout it. I'd a heap ruther be killed by a good honest Injun who
wuz pantin' fur my blood an' didn't pretend that he wuzn't pantin', than
be done to death down here, in some cur'us, unbeknown, hole-in-the-dark
way, by a furrin' man who couldn't speak a real word of the decent English
language, but who wuz tryin' to let on all the time that he hated to do
it."
Long Jim stopped, breathing hard with his long speech and anger. Shif'less
Sol rose, walked across the room, and solemnly held out his hand to his
comrade.
"Jim," he said, "you don't often talk sense, but you're talkin' a heap o'
it now. Shake."
Long Jim shook and added with a grin:
"When me an' you agree, Sol, 'bout anythin', it's shorely right."
Then they fell silent for a while, each thinking in his own way of what
had occurred. Henry Ware walked to one of the windows and looked out for a
long while. He relished little the idea of being a prisoner for the second
time, even if the second imprisonment were a sort of courtesy affair. He
saw from the windows the roofs of houses amid green foliage and he knew
that only a few hundred yards beyond lay the great forest, which, now in
the freshest and tenderest tints of spring, rolled away unbroken, save for
the few scratches that the French or Spanish had made, for thousands of
miles, and for all he knew to the Arctic Circle itself.
The words of Long Jim stirred the youth deeply. He did not like intrigue
and double-dealing and the ways of foreign men. Like Long Jim he longed
for the great honest forest, and he, too, had his respect for the Indian
who would tomahawk him without claiming to be a friend. He was glad, very
glad, that he had come upon so great an errand, but he would like to
cleave through the whole web of intrigue with one sturdy blow and then be
off into the forest which was calling to him with such a dearly loved
voice.
Paul saw Henry's face and he understood its expression. He knew that it
was harder for his comrade than for himself to endure the confinement
within four walls, but he said nothing. Words would be wasted.
Later in the day their door was opened, and Mr. Pollock came in bringing
with him a cheery breeze.
"I've come to tell you what news there may be," he said, "and also to ask
questions. Now, sit down and make yourselves comfortable. That's right.
The cunning and ambitious Don Francisco Alvarez is in a rage. He is also
somewhat frightened. He knows that Bernardo Galvez will be busy the next
few days trying to secure the proof of the charges that you make against
him. In my opinion, Galvez believes that they are true, but, as you will
agree, he cannot act without proof."
"But that is exactly what we lack at this time," said Henry, "and how can
we get it while we are locked up here?"
"Just so! Just so! That is a point to which I am coming. Now, about this
renegade, this Braxton Wyatt. You say he is the man who drew the maps and
who has been the intermediary in this whole nefarious scheme. Maps could
be drawn, of course, for a purpose not wicked, but if they could be
produced, and above all if Alvarez had made any notes upon them in his own
handwriting, they would go far to help. If not proof, they would at least
be a strong indication. Now, where do you think these maps are kept?"
"On the person of Braxton Wyatt," replied Henry promptly.
The merchant smiled with pleasure.
"Of course! Of course!" he said. "They belong to Wyatt and naturally he
would keep them. Naturally, also, Alvarez would want him to keep them. He
would take care that such things were not found on his own person. We must
get possession of those maps. But we must go further. This renegade has
lived among both the Shawnees and Miamis and is high in their confidence,
is it not so?"
"Yes, both the great head-chiefs, Yellow Panther and Red Eagle, trust
him."
"And to carry out this nefarious alliance some promise must have passed
between Alvarez and the two head chiefs. That promise had to take a
concrete form to be binding."
"War belts," suggested Henry.
"But a white man does not send war belts. He has another kind of token,
and he makes that token with paper, ink, and a goose quill. Yes, Alvarez
is cunning, I know, but the most cunning of all men when he enters a great
conspiracy must leave a loose end hanging about somewhere. Or, to change
my simile, there is no armor of deception so complete that there is not a
crack in it. We must find that loose end, we must find that crack, and
when we do, we can see victory just ahead of us."
"Do you mean," said Henry, "that Alvarez has probably sent a letter to the
Northern chiefs, promising that as Governor General of Louisiana he will
help them with soldiers and cannon against us in Kentucky?"
"I think it likely, quite likely," returned Oliver Pollock, nodding his
head to give emphasis to his words. "He had to give them something that
would bind. A conspirator must take a risk and in this case it seemed
small. The villages of those chiefs are beyond the Ohio, fifteen hundred
miles at least from here. The chance that such a letter would reappear in
New Orleans was most remote, and Alvarez, might have expected to provide
against that, too, by being Governor General within a few months. I feel
confident that there is such a letter and we must find it."
"It's a pretty problem," said Paul.
"I admit it," said Oliver Pollock, "but a new continent teaches one to
achieve the impossible. That is what are we to do; how, I do not yet know,
but we must do it."
"It's important," said Henry, "that it be done soon."
"It certainly is," said Mr. Pollock with great emphasis, "because I wish
to start North soon with a great fleet of canoes and other boats loaded
with rifles, powder, lead, blankets, medicines, and other absolutely
necessary things for our suffering brethren in the east. They are hard
pressed there, and it takes a long time to pull up the Mississippi and the
Ohio and then carry these things across four or five hundred miles of
country to our army."
"It's shorely a wonderful thing," said Shif'less Sol, "that you kin take
boats up a big river hundreds an' hundreds o' miles into the heart o' a
continent, then bend off into another river runnin' into it that takes
you nearly over to the Atlantic. An' mebbe ef you took one o' the rivers
that runs in it on the other side you might follow it up 'till you got
purty near to the western ocean. It says to me plain ez print that we must
hev this here Mississippi all the way to its mouth. We can't stay bottled
up."
"Sh-sh," said Mr. Pollock, warningly. "Leave that to the future. It will
adjust itself, and I think it will adjust itself in the way that we wish,
but we cannot talk of it now, while Bernardo Galvez is our good friend and
Spain inclines to our side. Of course Louisiana may be passed back to
France, but France is a better and more powerful friend than Spain can
be."
"Do you think you can get hold of Braxton Wyatt?" asked Henry of Mr.
Pollock.
"I shall try," replied the merchant. "Our association has agents here, and
in such times as these and in such a great emergency much may be excused.
If we can get hands upon him at a convenient moment and place we'll see
whether he has those maps about him."
"He'll surely have them," said Henry. "But he'll stick close to Alvarez."
"Yes, there lies the trouble," said Mr. Pollock, "but we'll do our best."
He took his departure, and they were left again to loneliness. Several
days passed thus and they chafed terribly. Food and drink they had in
plenty, and even some English books were sent to them. But the narrow
space and the four enclosing walls were always there. Outside the spring
was deepening. All the great forest throbbed with the life of bird and
beast, but they, the highest of creation, could not walk ten paces in any
direction.
"Jim," said Shif'less Sol to Long Jim, "there's a spring 'bout twenty
miles north o' Wareville that you an' me hev sat by many a time. Thar are
hundreds a' springs through that country, yes, thousands o' 'em, but this
one is the finest o' 'em all. It comes right out o' the side o' a rock
hill, a stream so pure that you kin see right through it same ez ef it
wuzn't thar, then it falls into a most bee-yu-ti-ful rock pool scooped out
by Natur, an' ez the pool overflows, it runs away through the grass an'
the woods in a stream 'bout two feet wide an' four inches deep. I think
that's 'bout the nicest, coldest, an' most life-givin' water in all
Kentucky. You an' me, Jim, hev gone thar many a time, hot an' tired from
the hunt, an' hev felt ez ef we had landed right on the steps o' Heaven
itself. An' the game, Jim! The game, big an' little, knowed 'bout that
spring, too. Remember that tre-men-je-ous big elk you an' me killed 'bout
two hundred yards north o' the spring. He stood most ez high ez a horse.
An' remember, Jim, when we climbed up on top o' the hill out o' which the
spring runs, we could see a long distance every way, north, south, east
an' west, over the most bee-yu-ti-ful country, an' we could go whar we
pleased. We could follow the buffaler clean to the western ocean ef we
felt like it."
Long Jim had been sitting on the floor. Now he rose and advanced in a
threatening manner upon Shif'less Sol.
"See here, Sol Hyde!" he exclaimed, "me an' you hev had words many a time,
but they hev always ended in smoke! They hev never gone ez fur ez this!
An' I want to tell you right here, Sol Hyde, that I kin stand a lot uv
things but I can't stand this! 'Ef you say another word about that
bee-yu-ti-ful spring, an' them bee-yu-ti-ful woods, an' that bee-yu-ti-ful
game, thar'll be a heap uv trouble, an' it'll all be fur you!"
"Hit him anyway, Jim," said Tom Ross. "He's done filled me clean up with
discontent, and he ought to be punished."
Shif'less Sol laughed.
"I won't do it again, Jim," he said. "It wuz 'cause I feel ez bad about it
ez you do, an' I jest had to let off some meanness."
Lieutenant Diégo Bernal reappeared at last. He bestowed shrewd looks upon
the five and said:
"I have an impression, though my impressions are usually false and my
memory always weak, that you are pining. You wish the liberty and the open
air of Kaintock. Your legs are long and you would stretch them."
"You hev shore hit it, leftenant," said Tom Ross. "Sometimes I think uv
startin' off walkin' ez straight an' hard ez I kin, goin' right through
the wall thar, an' then through any house that might git in the way, an'
never to stop goin' 'till I got to Kentucky, whar a man may breathe free
an' easy."
Lieutenant Diégo Bernal laughed and daintily stroked his little mustache.
"I understand you and you have my sympathy," he said. "We Catalans are at
heart republicans, and I am interested in this new place of yours that you
call Kaintock. But you will have to endure this fort a while longer. The
good Señor Pollock does not make progress. He cannot produce the proof of
what you charge. Yet Bernardo Galvez waits. He believes in you, and he
holds Alvarez and Wyatt in the city. He is strengthened in his opinion,
too, by gossip that has come down from Beaulieu, but that is not proof and
he cannot act upon it. But be patient. I have an impression, although my
impressions are usually false, that time is fighting for you."
He stayed with them an hour, precise and affected, but they believed him
to be brave and true. A few days later Oliver Pollock himself came again.
"I have not been able to get hold of Wyatt," he said. "He stays too
closely with Alvarez. I don't think that my agents are skillful enough.
Hence I decided to procure a new one and fortunately I have succeeded."
"Who is that?" asked Henry.
"Yourself."
"Myself!" exclaimed Henry in astonishment.
"No one but you," replied the merchant. "I have been able, by the use of
great influence, to secure from Bernardo Galvez your temporary release. It
is to his interest to have this plot exposed if it really exists, and
accordingly he has allowed me to borrow you. You can go forth with me if
you give your word of honor that you will not leave New Orleans or its
vicinity and will report again here."
"Why, of course I'll go! I'll"--exclaimed Henry joyfully, and then he
stopped suddenly, looking around at his comrades. Then he added: "I don't
feel right, Mr. Pollock, to go away and leave the boys in this place."
Up rose Tom Ross.
"Don't you fret about us, Henry," he said. "You're goin' on a good work
an' you'll do it, too. We need to hev one uv our gang outside. Remember up
at Boo-ly, when Alvarez had us, how much better we felt 'cause he didn't
hev Sol. 'Twas a comfort to think that Sol wuz out thar in the woods."
It was a long speech for Tom Ross, but it expressed the sentiments of them
all. Henry left with Mr. Pollock and they went to a handsome brick house
in the city. This house was store, office, and residence combined, and
several clerks were about. But these clerks did not have pale faces and
bent backs. They were mostly strong-limbed, broad-shouldered men with
tanned faces.
"They work out of doors," said Mr. Pollock briefly. "Some are to go with
the fleet up the rivers, others have been as far as the West Indies
accumulating supplies. It is necessary for them all to be able to write
and shoot."
Henry liked their looks, but he did not have a chance to speak to any of
them as Mr. Pollock quickly led the way Into a small inner office, where
he motioned Henry to a chair and took one himself. Henry was now within
narrower walls than those that confined him in the prison, but he felt a
huge sense of relief. He was free. If he wanted to open the door and walk
out he could do so. He expanded his great chest and took a mighty breath.
Mr. Pollock heard the suspiration, looked up, and laughed. He understood
perfectly.
"I'd feel that way, too, if I had been in your place," he said. "Now what
we want to do is to devise some plan of trapping your friend and enemy.
Mr. Wyatt. What do you think?"
"Once," replied Henry, "when, he was carrying war belts between the
Shawnees and Miamis we simply seized him and took them away from him. We
must do something of this kind. Where is he staying?"
"Alvarez, has a house near the river. He is there. I know that the two are
plotting all the while, but I cannot get the proof."
"Do Wyatt and Alvarez know that I'm out?"
"No, neither of them."
"That's good. I think I can surprise Braxton Wyatt. If I can get my hands
on him I'm sure that we'll find those maps. What kind of a house has
Alvarez?"
"You can see it from that window. A pretty place, standing among the
trees."
Henry looked, and the longer he looked the more pleased he felt. The trees
were thick around the house of Alvarez and the fact gave him an idea.
"I think I know how to do it," he said.
Oliver Pollock leaned forward, his shrewd face eager, and for a few
minutes the two talked low and earnestly.