He took his departure, and they were left again to loneliness.  Several days passed thus and they chafed terribly.  Food and drink they had in plenty, and even some English books were sent to them.  But the narrow space and the four enclosing walls were always there.  Outside the spring was deepening.  All the great forest throbbed with the life of bird and beast, but they, the highest of creation, could not walk ten paces in any direction.

“Jim,” said Shif’less Sol to Long Jim, “there’s a spring ’bout twenty miles north o’ Wareville that you an’ me hev sat by many a time.  Thar are hundreds a’ springs through that country, yes, thousands o’ ’em, but this one is the finest o’ ’em all.  It comes right out o’ the side o’ a rock hill, a stream so pure that you kin see right through it same ez ef it wuzn’t thar, then it falls into a most bee-yu-ti-ful rock pool scooped out by Natur, an’ ez the pool overflows, it runs away through the grass an’ the woods in a stream ‘bout two feet wide an’ four inches deep.  I think that’s ‘bout the nicest, coldest, an’ most life-givin’ water in all Kentucky.  You an’ me, Jim, hev gone thar many a time, hot an’ tired from the hunt, an’ hev felt ez ef we had landed right on the steps o’ Heaven itself.  An’ the game, Jim!  The game, big an’ little, knowed ’bout that spring, too.  Remember that tre-men-je-ous big elk you an’ me killed ’bout two hundred yards north o’ the spring.  He stood most ez high ez a horse.  An’ remember, Jim, when we climbed up on top o’ the hill out o’ which the spring runs, we could see a long distance every way, north, south, east an’ west, over the most bee-yu-ti-ful country, an’ we could go whar we pleased.  We could follow the buffaler clean to the western ocean ef we felt like it.”

Long Jim had been sitting on the floor.  Now he rose and advanced in a threatening manner upon Shif’less Sol.

“See here, Sol Hyde!” he exclaimed, “me an’ you hev had words many a time, but they hev always ended in smoke!  They hev never gone ez fur ez this!  An’ I want to tell you right here, Sol Hyde, that I kin stand a lot uv things but I can’t stand this!  ’Ef you say another word about that bee-yu-ti-ful spring, an’ them bee-yu-ti-ful woods, an’ that bee-yu-ti-ful game, thar’ll be a heap uv trouble, an’ it’ll all be fur you!”

“Hit him anyway, Jim,” said Tom Ross.  “He’s done filled me clean up with discontent, and he ought to be punished.”

Shif’less Sol laughed.

“I won’t do it again, Jim,” he said.  “It wuz ’cause I feel ez bad about it ez you do, an’ I jest had to let off some meanness.”

Lieutenant Diego Bernal reappeared at last.  He bestowed shrewd looks upon the five and said: 

“I have an impression, though my impressions are usually false and my memory always weak, that you are pining.  You wish the liberty and the open air of Kaintock.  Your legs are long and you would stretch them.”

“You hev shore hit it, leftenant,” said Tom Ross.  “Sometimes I think uv startin’ off walkin’ ez straight an’ hard ez I kin, goin’ right through the wall thar, an’ then through any house that might git in the way, an’ never to stop goin’ ’till I got to Kentucky, whar a man may breathe free an’ easy.”