“Good old Sol,” he said, “I’m glad he didn’t come too.  He’s somewhere out there in the woods, and he’s the one link between us and Kentucky.  We’ll be sure to hear from him.”

They talked of their plans, but for the time, they could see no way.  Shif’less Sol might go on alone to New Orleans, but it needed the presence of the five to be convincing.

“He wouldn’t go anyhow,” said Paul.  “Sol would never leave us here.”

Luiz brought them food and water at noon, and then they were left again to themselves.

CHAPTER XI

THE SPANIARD’S OFFER

The afternoon passed without incident in the log prison save another and very welcome visit from Luiz, who brought water and some cloth bandages to be used on Paul’s shoulder.  Henry and Long Jim, familiar with hurts, dressed it carefully and skillfully.  Paul’s healthy blood would quickly do the rest.

“It will be stiff a little for three or four days,” said Henry, “but you’ll forget in a week that you ever had it.”

Then he turned to Luiz.

“We’d like to thank you,” he said, “I know you don’t understand our words, but maybe you take our meaning.”

Luiz nodded violently, smiled at the boy, and then held out his hand in quite an American fashion.  His face expressed not only understanding but gratitude as well.  Henry, of the acute eye and retentive mind, took a second look.  Then he remembered.

“The man whom the buffalo was about to gore and run over!” he exclaimed.  “Well, I am glad I was there to help you, and it seems that a lucky chance has made us a friend.”

He took the proffered hand and shook it heartily.  When Luiz had gone he explained to the others.

“He is surely a friend,” he said, “and we have certainly had a piece of good fortune.”

But Long Jim instantly demurred.

“Henry,” he said, “you’re a smart fellow, but you’re talkin’ real foolish.  It wuz your good heart that done it.  Ef it hadn’t told you to help him when that mad bull wuz about to run over him an’ gore him an’ trample him clean out uv sight in the earth, he wouldn’t a-been here now, grinnin’ at you an’ with the gratitude oozin’ out uv him all over.”

Just before the sunset the door was opened again and Braxton Wyatt thrust in his hateful face.  Behind him stood four Spanish soldiers.

“I hope you are enjoying yourselves,” he said with irony.

“We’d rather be here, as we are, than be in your place, having done what you have done,” exclaimed Paul passionately.

Wyatt paled a little, but instantly recovered himself.

“A bear can growl a lot when it’s in a trap but growling doesn’t help it out,” he said airily.

“We kin do more than growl.  We’ve got sharp teeth, too, ez you ought to know,” said Tom Ross, the man of few words.

“I’ll admit that you have had some successes in the past,” said Wyatt, smiling maliciously, “but your time is done.  We are the victors, and you’ll never get out of this.”