“Good morning,” he exclaimed, cheerily, “you are the gentlemen from Kentucky who arrived yesterday?  Yes, you must be!  All New Orleans has heard of the feat of strength and dexterity, performed by one of you last night in Monsieur Gilibert’s Inn of Henri Quatre!  And he who did it could be none other than you, my friend!”

He looked fixedly and admiringly at Henry, and the youth blushed under his tan.

“It was merely done to stop an annoyance,” he said.  “I did not mean to make any display.”

The prepossessing stranger laughed.

“Doubtless,” he said, “but you have received a great advertisement, nevertheless.  Some rumor concerning the cause of your visit has also spread in New Orleans, and for this reason I am here to meet you at the door of the Governor General.”

The five looked at him inquiringly.  He smiled, and they liked him better than ever.

“I don’t mean to make a mystery of anything,” he said.  “My name is Pollock, Oliver Pollock.”

“Ah,” exclaimed Paul, his face alight, “you are the head of the company of Philadelphia, New York and Boston merchants that is sending arms from New Orleans up the Mississippi and Ohio to Pittsburg, where they are landed and taken across the country for the use of our hard-pressed brethren in the east!”

The shrewd merchant’s eyes twinkled.

“I see, my young friend,” he said to Paul, “that you are alert, even if you have just come out of the wilderness.  Yes, I am that man, and I am proud to be the head of such a company.  I tell you, too, that you have come at the right time.  The English, as you know, are forbidden for the present to trade at New Orleans, while we are unrestricted.  But England is powerful, far more powerful than Spain, and she is pushing hard for the privilege.  If she gets it we shall he hit in a vital spot.  Moreover, an exceedingly strong faction here, one with great influence, is striving continually to help England and to crush us.”

“Alvarez!” exclaimed Henry and Paul together.

“Yes, Alvarez!  We must not underrate his strength and cunning, but if he is engaged in plotting, in actual treason, or what is very near it, your coming may help us to prove it and thus strengthen the hand of Bernardo Galvez, who is our friend.”

“There is no doubt of the fact!” said Henry earnestly.  “He is planning to make himself Governor General in place of Galvez!”

“Ah, but to prove it! to prove it!  You are strangers and foreigners, and Alvarez is before you here.  No, don’t blame yourselves, you could not help it.  But he is the commander of the Spanish forces in Northern Louisiana.  He came, summoned urgently on the King’s business, and he gained access to Bernardo Galvez last night.  Oh, he’s a shrewd man, and a cunning one, and we know not what plausible tale he may have poured out to the Governor General.  But come, the sentinel here wishes to know our business and I shall go in with you, if I may.”