“He will receive the proper attention,” he said, “but you are my prisoner, and so is this man who has just been taken with you.  I tell you, too, that I am in supreme command here, and I take the responsibility for all my acts.”

Braxton Wyatt had crowded near, but Henry and Tom refused to notice him.  Luiz went into the ring and led Paul away, binding up his shoulder where the flesh was cut, although the hurt was not serious.  “Take their arms and put them all in the same prison,” said Alvarez to one of his officers and the four were escorted to the log house which Paul and Long Jim had left not long before.

“Our plan has been marked by some success after all,” said Alvarez to Braxton Wyatt.  “It has drawn two more into our hands.”

“There is a fifth,” said Braxton Wyatt.  “The one they call Shif’less Sol, and we have not got him.  As long as a single one of them is free we are in danger.”

The Spaniard laughed.

“You exaggerate their powers,” he said.  “We have nothing to fear from one wandering hunter.”

“But this man, Shif’less Sol, is full of cunning,” said Braxton Wyatt.

The Spaniard’s only reply was to hold his head a little higher.  It was his plan now to assume his haughtiest manner.  The little fear that he had done wrong, that his act in forcing Paul into the ring against a professional swordsman, a gladiator as it were, was mediaeval, and that harm might come to him from it, clung to him.  But pride bade him never to show it.

As he and Braxton Wyatt went into the Chateau of Beaulieu, the doors of the log prison closed upon the four comrades.  Paul, under the care of Luiz, reached it first but the others were just behind.  Paul sat on the floor and leaned against the wall.  The others bent tenderly over him.  But Paul looked up at them and smiled.

“It isn’t much,” he said.  “The sword only grazed me.  My clothing saved me from a bad cut.  But I wish you boys, whatever happens, would remember that Spaniard, Luiz.  He’s been kind to me.”

“We’ll do it,” said Henry.  “I don’t know what will come of all this, Paul, but I feel sure that we’ll succeed.”

“Of course,” said Paul, “but you came just in time, and that was a great shot of yours.”

“We were in the woods,” said Henry, “and we saw the crowd gathering.  We knew some mischief was afoot, and they were so eager on it that we came up unnoticed.  I wanted Tom to stay back, but he was afraid he would be needed.”

“And Shif’less Sol?” said Paul.  “Where is he?”

Henry laughed.

“The shiftless one is about the shiftiest man in the wilderness,” he replied.  “Do you suppose that he would ever walk into a trap, when there was nothing inside the trap worth the risk?  Didn’t he know that Tom and I were sufficient for any task that might be ahead of us this morning?”

Paul laughed, too, and the others were glad to see the color coming back into his face.