The young man had shown great skill with the sword--he had disarmed me in a little encounter; I admit that, too--and we wished to test his agility and courage against a master, who was instructed not to hurt him seriously under any circumstances." He spoke rapidly and lightly, almost convincingly.

But Henry Ware interrupted.
"His object," he said, "was to have Paul Cotter killed." Bernardo Galvez looked from one to the other and back again.

It was the word of a stranger and a foreigner against that of a Spanish captain in his service, a man of noble lineage, and with powerful friends at the Court of Madrid.

But the seeds of doubt had been sown nevertheless.

The youth, Paul, and his comrade Henry, also, had spoken with singular earnestness.