ur 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 m