He wished his fleet of
supply canoes to start on the great river journey at once, but it could
not depart while such storms were threatening. Alvarez was too serious a
danger, and he must be removed. But the merchant realized that he had made
little progress. Alvarez seemed to be secure in his plot.
There came a knock at his door, and in reply to his request to enter, a
clerk said that the young man, Mr. Ware, had returned. Mr. Pollock rose to
his feet as Henry came in. Henry carefully closed the door behind him,
advanced, and put a small package in Mr. Pollock's hand.
"There they are!" he said, "the maps drawn up by Braxton Wyatt, and with
notes on them in handwriting, which I take to be that of Francisco
Alvarez."
The merchant stared at first in astonishment and delight. Then he ran to
the lamp and spread out the sheets of fine, thin deerskin. He looked at
them, one by one, and laughed with delight.
"Yes," he said, "the notes are in the handwriting of Francisco Alvarez! I
know it--I have seen it often enough--and Bernardo Galvez will know it,
too! Oh, it is a great find! a great find! It is not conclusive proof,
but it will go far toward swaying belief! How did you get them?"
Henry had recovered from all signs of his struggle with the renegade, and
was now sitting placidly in a chair.
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