Braxton Wyatt was as thoroughly the Spaniard as clothes could make him, which was not thorough at all, and he imitated his leader even to the supercilious glance at the Kentuckians and the following look of assured victory. The five took no notice of him. Alvarez gave to the Governor General a military salute, which Galvez returned in like fashion. Then the captain sat down in a chair near the Governor General, and the latter said, maintaining his judicial tone: "Those against whom you made the complaint last night are here, Don Francisco. Will you state again the charges? It is but fair that they should hear and make reply, if they can." He spoke in English that the five might understand, and Alvarez replied in the same language. "Your Excellency," he said, and his tone seemed frank, open, and convincing--the five were amazed that he could have such a truthful look and manner of injured innocence--"you know that I have been a most faithful guardian of the interests of our master, the King. I have done long and hard service in the far north, in a wilderness infested by hostile savages." "No one doubts your courage and endurance, Don Francisco," said Bernardo Galvez. "My devotion to Spain is the great passion of my life," continued Alvarez in a gratified tone. "You know how jealously I have sought to guard against incursions from Kaintock. The settlements of the Americans there are but two or three year old, yet these people press already upon the Mississippi and threaten His Majesty's territory of Louisiana." "I think that we wander a little from the subject," said Galvez, "It would be better to state the core of your complaint." Alvarez made a deprecating gesture. "I deemed the preamble necessary to a full understanding of what has followed," he said. "When I tell of Kaintock I tell what these men are. Suffice it now to say that, of their own accord and by their own hands, they have made war upon Spain. They have stolen away a boat of mine, loaded with arms and stores, they have fired upon His Majesty's subjects, and one of them has slain a Natchez trailer, a faithful, valuable man in my service." When Alvarez spoke of The Cat, he pointed at Shif'less Sol--he was acting on a hint of Wyatt's. The look of Alvarez followed the accusing finger, but the shiftless one rose undaunted. "That part of what he tells is true," said Shif'less Sol. "I slew that Injun--an' a meaner face I never saw in fa'r fight. He slipped upon me in the dark to murder me, an' thar wuzn't nothin' else left fur me to do." Freed of his speech and his wrath, the shiftless one sat down again. Alvarez and the renegade gave him looks of sneering incredulity, but the look of Bernardo Galvez was one of interest and surprise. "What of the other charges?" he asked, turning to Paul, the spokesman.