anner 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 Diego 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 Diego 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 Senor 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.

"Yours