"
Francisco Alvarez smiled cynically, and once more surveyed Braxton Wyatt,
with a rapid, measuring glance.
"You speak my sentiments, Senor Wyatt," he said, "and you speak them in a
language that I scarcely expected."
"I had a schoolmaster even in the wilderness," said Braxton Wyatt. "And I
may tell you, too, as proof of my faith that I would be hanged at once
should I return to the settlements."
"I do not doubt your faith. I was merely curious about your motives. I am
sure also that you can be of great help to us."
He spoke in a patronizing manner, and Braxton Wyatt moved slightly in
anger, but restrained his speech.
"I may say," continued the Spaniard, "that His Excellency Bernardo Galvez,
His Most Catholic Majesty's Governor of his loyal province of Louisiana,
has been stirred by the word that comes to him of these new settlements of
the rebel Americans in the land of the Ohio. The province of Louisiana is
vast, and it may be that it includes the country on either side of the
Ohio. The French, our predecessors, claimed it, and now that all the
colonists east of the mountains are busy fighting their king, it may be
easy to take it from them, as one would snip off a skirt with a pair of
scissors. That is why I and this faithful band are so far north in these
woods.
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