wn to
him at the house of the Governor General.

"It was really you, Father Montigny, who saved everything," said Paul.

The priest smiled and shook his head.

"No," he said, "It was not I, but your courage and tenacity. I had the
rare good fortune to find the letter among the Chickasaws and obtain it.
It was sent by the Shawnees and Miamis as a sort of token, a war belt as
it were. It was only a remote chance that brought it back to New Orleans,
and even then Alvarez confidently expected to be Governor General."

"What will become of Alvarez?" asked Paul.

"It is the plan to send him a prisoner to Spain on the galleon, Dona
Isabel, as you know, but I fear that we have not heard the last of him. He
is a man of fierce temper, and now he is wild with rage and mortification.
Moreover, he has many followers here in New Orleans. All the desperadoes,
adventurers, former galley slaves, and others of that type would have been
ready to rally around him. But I have come to tell you good-bye. I go
again in my canoe up the Mississippi."

"Can't you stay a while in New Orleans and rest?" asked Paul--the sympathy
between Paul and the priest was strong, each having a certain spiritual
quality that was in agreement.

"No," replied Father Montigny, "I cannot stay. You came on your task in
spite of hardships and dangers because you felt that a power urged you to
it. Farewell. We may meet again or we may not, as Heaven wills."

They followed him to the door and when he was almost out of sight he
turned and waved his hand to them.

The next day New Orleans, which was already deeply stirred by news of the
plot of Alvarez and its discovery, had another thrill. It was Lieutenant
Diego Bernal who told the five of it at the counting house of Oliver
Pollock.

"Francisco Alvarez has escaped," he said. "The watch at the prison was
none too strict; it may be that some of the guards themselves were friends
of his. In any event, he is gone from the city, and his going has been
followed by the departure of many men whom New Orleans could well spare.
But whether their going now will be to our benefit I cannot tell."

"Do you mean to say," asked Henry, "that all these men have gone away to
join Alvarez in some desperate adventure?"

"I have an impression, although my impressions are usually false," replied
the Lieutenant, "that such is the case. The Chickasaws, the Creeks, and
other tribes of these regions are his friends because he has pro