d see no way.
Shif'less Sol might go on alone to New Orleans, but it needed the presence
of the five to be convincing.

"He wouldn't go anyhow," said Paul. "Sol would never leave us here."

Luiz brought them food and water at noon, and then they were left again to
themselves.

CHAPTER XI

THE SPANIARD'S OFFER

The afternoon passed without incident in the log prison save another and
very welcome visit from Luiz, who brought water and some cloth bandages to
be used on Paul's shoulder. Henry and Long Jim, familiar with hurts,
dressed it carefully and skillfully. Paul's healthy blood would quickly do
the rest.

"It will be stiff a little for three or four days," said Henry, "but
you'll forget in a week that you ever had it."

Then he turned to Luiz.

"We'd like to thank you," he said, "I know you don't understand our words,
but maybe you take our meaning."

Luiz nodded violently, smiled at the boy, and then held out his hand in
quite an American fashion. His face expressed not only understanding but
gratitude as well. Henry, of the acute eye and retentive mind, took a
second look. Then he remembered.

"The man whom the buffalo was about to gore and run over!" he exclaimed.
"Well, I am glad I was there to help you, and it seems that a lucky chance
has made us a friend."

He took the proffered hand and shook it heartily. When Luiz had gone he
explained to the others.

"He is surely a friend," he said, "and we have certainly had a piece of
good fortune."

But Long Jim instantly demurred.

"Henry," he said, "you're a smart fellow, but you're talkin' real foolish.
It wuz your good heart that done it. Ef it hadn't told you to help him
when that mad bull wuz about to run over him an' gore him an' trample him
clean out uv sight in the earth, he wouldn't a-been here now, grinnin' at
you an' with the gratitude oozin' out uv him all over."

Just before the sunset the door was opened again and Braxton Wyatt thrust
in his hateful face. Behind him stood four Spanish soldiers.

"I hope you are enjoying yourselves," he said with irony.

"We'd rather be here, as we are, than be in your place, having done what
you have done," exclaimed Paul passionately.

Wyatt paled a little, but instantly recovered himself.

"A bear can growl a lot when it's in a trap but growling doesn't help it
out," he said airily.

"We kin do more than growl. We've got sharp teeth, too, ez you ought to
know," said Tom Ross, the man of