, dignified, and austere, but his manner
was not calculated to ruffle his superior officer. It seemed rather to
indicate a confidence that the Governor General would punish as was
fitting the impertinence of the intruders from Kaintock. He bestowed only
a single glance upon them, as if his victory over such insignificant
opponents were already assured. The blood slowly rose to the faces of
Paul and Henry, but they were about to witness an extraordinary exhibition
of Spanish pliancy and dexterity.

Braxton Wyatt was as thoroughly the Spaniard as clothes could make him,
which was not thorough at all, and he imitated his leader even to the
supercilious glance at the Kentuckians and the following look of assured
victory. The five took no notice of him.

Alvarez gave to the Governor General a military salute, which Galvez
returned in like fashion. Then the captain sat down in a chair near the
Governor General, and the latter said, maintaining his judicial tone:

"Those against whom you made the complaint last night are here, Don
Francisco. Will you state again the charges? It is but fair that they
should hear and make reply, if they can."

He spoke in English that the five might understand, and Alvarez replied in
the same language.

"Your Excellency," he said, and his tone seemed frank, open, and
convincing--the five were amazed that he could have such a truthful look
and manner of injured innocence--"you know that I have been a most
faithful guardian of the interests of our master, the King. I have done
long and hard service in the far north, in a wilderness infested by
hostile savages."

"No one doubts your courage and endurance, Don Francisco," said Bernardo
Galvez.

"My devotion to Spain is the great passion of my life," continued Alvarez
in a gratified tone.

"You know how jealously I have sought to guard against incursions from
Kaintock. The settlements of the Americans there are but two or three year
old, yet these people press already upon the Mississippi and threaten His
Majesty's territory of Louisiana."

"I think that we wander a little from the subject," said Galvez, "It would
be better to state the core of your complaint."

Alvarez made a deprecating gesture.

"I deemed the preamble necessary to a full understanding of what has
followed," he said. "When I tell of Kaintock I tell what these men are.
Suffice it now to say that, of their own accord and by their own hands,
they have made war upon Spain