All others kept at a respectful distance. The
four began to talk and, although only an occasional word reached the
watching three, they knew too well their subject of converse. It was the
great conspiracy to draw the Spanish from Louisiana into an attack upon
the infant settlements, upon the ground that they were or would be
interlopers. It was cannon that the assailants needed to smash the block
houses, and cannon in abundance could be brought on the great rivers from
New Orleans.
The watchers presently saw Braxton Wyatt take a small parcel from the
inside of his deerskin hunting shirt. He unfolded the parcel and the
watchers could see that it consisted of large pieces of the finest, tanned
deerskin.
"Maps," said Paul intuitively. "That scoundrel, Braxton Wyatt, has made
them for the aid of the Spanish, and to disclose all our weak points!"
The fire blazed higher and they could see that on the white deerskin were
drawn lines in colored pigment, and the rest they guessed. It was true
enough. Braxton Wyatt, no mean draughtsman, had drawn, with the most
elaborate care and attention to detail, maps on a large scale of every one
of the infant settlements. There was nothing about Wareville in particular
that he did not show, and he also designated all the rivers, hills, and
valleys as far as they were known.
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