n has been marked by some success after all," said Alvarez to
Braxton Wyatt. "It has drawn two more into our hands."

"There is a fifth," said Braxton Wyatt. "The one they call Shif'less Sol,
and we have not got him. As long as a single one of them is free we are in
danger."

The Spaniard laughed.

"You exaggerate their powers," he said. "We have nothing to fear from one
wandering hunter."

"But this man, Shif'less Sol, is full of cunning," said Braxton Wyatt.

The Spaniard's only reply was to hold his head a little higher. It was his
plan now to assume his haughtiest manner. The little fear that he had done
wrong, that his act in forcing Paul into the ring against a professional
swordsman, a gladiator as it were, was mediaeval, and that harm might come
to him from it, clung to him. But pride bade him never to show it.

As he and Braxton Wyatt went into the Chateau of Beaulieu, the doors of
the log prison closed upon the four comrades. Paul, under the care of
Luiz, reached it first but the others were just behind. Paul sat on the
floor and leaned against the wall. The others bent tenderly over him. But
Paul looked up at them and smiled.

"It isn't much," he said. "The sword only grazed me. My clothing saved me
from a bad cut. But I wish you boys, whatever happens, would remember that
Spaniard, Luiz. He's been kind to me."

"We'll do it," said Henry. "I don't know what will come of all this, Paul,
but I feel sure that we'll succeed."

"Of course," said Paul, "but you came just in time, and that was a great
shot of yours."

"We were in the woods," said Henry, "and we saw the crowd gathering. We
knew some mischief was afoot, and they were so eager on it that we came up
unnoticed. I wanted Tom to stay back, but he was afraid he would be
needed."

"And Shif'less Sol?" said Paul. "Where is he?"

Henry laughed.

"The shiftless one is about the shiftiest man in the wilderness," he
replied. "Do you suppose that he would ever walk into a trap, when there
was nothing inside the trap worth the risk? Didn't he know that Tom and I
were sufficient for any task that might be ahead of us this morning?"

Paul laughed, too, and the others were glad to see the color coming back
into his face.

"Good old Sol," he said, "I'm glad he didn't come too. He's somewhere out
there in the woods, and he's the one link between us and Kentucky. We'll
be sure to hear from him."

They talked of their plans, but for the time, they coul