rors for
Long Jim, if only there were no walls about him.

When hunger and thirst were satisfied, Luiz and his comrade fell back
respectfully. A tall figure, followed by a man bearing a torch, entered
the doorway.

The man was Francisco Alvarez, but neither Paul nor Long Jim rose, Paul
because he disliked the Spaniard and considered him a bitter enemy of his
people, Long Jim because he saw no reason why he should rise for anybody.

Alvarez looked down at them and the sight of the two caused him a mixture
of anger and triumph. His wound still stung, but at the bottom of his
heart was a feeling that he had deserved it. In the presence of his own
retainers, and with all the circumstances in his favor, he had sought to
humiliate a boy. But this faint feeling was not enough to induce
corresponding action. He was also something of a statesman, and he saw the
power behind these two who had come out of the woods. They were foresters,
they wore the tanned skin of the deer, but they belonged to the soil; they
were natives, while he, in all his brilliant uniform and gold lace, was a
foreigner, merely the long, extended arm of a power four thousand miles
away. The two were but a vanguard, others would come and yet others in a
volume, always increasing. The only possibility of saving Louisiana was to
cut off the stream at the fountain head, while it was yet a thin and
trickling rill, and he, Francisco Alvarez, was the man for the deed.

It was because such thoughts as these were passing through his head that
he did not speak for at least a minute, but stood steadily regarding Paul
and Long Jim. He knew instinctively that it was Paul to whom he must
speak, the boy with the thoughtful, dreamy eye, who, like himself, would
gaze far into the future.

"Where are your comrades?" he asked, "the other three who helped you to
steal my boat?"

"Captured it, you mean," replied Paul, calmly. "So long as you use the
words 'steal' and 'thief,' you can talk to the air. I've nothing to say."

"Nor me either, Paul," said Long Jim, "I can't remember another time in my
life when I felt so little like talkin'."

Long Jim leaned his head against the wall and half closed his eyes. His
manner expressed the utmost indifference. Alvarez frowned, but he
remembered that they were wholly in his power and he had plans.

"I'll change the words," he said, "but I repeat the question. Where are
your comrades?"

"I don't know," replied Paul, and feeling a