That promise had to take a
concrete form to be binding."
"War belts," suggested Henry.
"But a white man does not send war belts. He has another kind of token,
and he makes that token with paper, ink, and a goose quill. Yes, Alvarez
is cunning, I know, but the most cunning of all men when he enters a great
conspiracy must leave a loose end hanging about somewhere. Or, to change
my simile, there is no armor of deception so complete that there is not a
crack in it. We must find that loose end, we must find that crack, and
when we do, we can see victory just ahead of us."
"Do you mean," said Henry, "that Alvarez has probably sent a letter to the
Northern chiefs, promising that as Governor General of Louisiana he will
help them with soldiers and cannon against us in Kentucky?"
"I think it likely, quite likely," returned Oliver Pollock, nodding his
head to give emphasis to his words. "He had to give them something that
would bind. A conspirator must take a risk and in this case it seemed
small. The villages of those chiefs are beyond the Ohio, fifteen hundred
miles at least from here. The chance that such a letter would reappear in
New Orleans was most remote, and Alvarez, might have expected to provide
against that, too, by being Governor General within a few months.
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