“Why should I betray you?” said the renegade.  “I have no motive to do so and every possible motive to keep faith.”

“I know it,” replied Alvarez, “and that is why I speak.  It is to your interest to be faithful to me and when my enterprise succeeds, as it certainly will, you shall have your proper share of the reward.  Bernardo Galvez, as you know, is the Governor General of Louisiana, and his father is the Viceroy of Mexico.  They are powerful, very powerful, and I am only a commander of troops under the son, but I, too, am powerful.  My family is one of the first in Spain.  It sits upon the very steps of the throne and more than once royal blood has entered our veins.  I was a favorite at the court and I have many friends there.  The King might be persuaded that Bernardo Galvez is not a fit representative of the royal interests in Louisiana.”

Francisco Alvarez leaned a little forward and his blue eyes, usually so chill, sparkled now with fire.  He was speaking of what lay next to his heart.  Braxton Wyatt, full of shrewdness and perception, understood at once.

“Bernardo Galvez might give way as Governor General of Louisiana,” said the renegade, “to be succeeded by a better man, one who had the real interests of Spain at heart, one who would refuse to give the slightest aid to rebels, rebels who would strike against a throne!”

The Spaniard looked pleased.

“I see that you are a man of penetration, Senor Wyatt,” he said, “and I am fortunate in having you as a lieutenant.  You have divined my thought.  I work, not for the interests of a man whose name has been mentioned by neither of us, but for the true interests of Spain and the divine right of kings.  What is this miserable Kaintock which is springing up?  We will crush it out as you would have crushed the rattlesnake!  The people of New Orleans and Louisiana hate rebels!  Why should they not?  It is the rebels who in time will take Louisiana from us if they can, not England.”

Braxton Wyatt smiled.  He was delighted to the very center of his cunning heart.  His plans and those of Alvarez marched well together.  Each strengthened the other.

“I am with you to the end,” he said.

“The end will be a glorious triumph,” said the Spaniard in emphatic tones.

Meanwhile Henry and Shif’less Sol still lay in the thicket.  Their project to seize Braxton Wyatt and strip him of the maps and plans had been defeated.  Henry knew that the renegade had caught a glimpse of him in the dusk and among the thick bushes and he expected an immediate alarm.  But when Wyatt raised none, he and Sol lingered.  They saw the renegade go to the Spaniard’s side on the little mound, and they saw the two talk long and earnestly, but, of course, they could not understand a word of what was said.

“They look mighty pleased with one another,” whispered Shif’less Sol, “so it’s bound to mean that they’re up to the worst sort o’ mischief.”