Long Jim had been thrown down and held fast and the lad was confronted by none other than Alvarez himself, while Braxton Wyatt, smiling in malignant triumph, stood just behind him.
"Well, my young man of Kaintock," said Francisco Alvarez in his precise English, "we have taken you and at least one of your brother thieves.

In good time we'll have the others, too.

It was an evil day when you ventured on my plantation so near such a wonderful tracker as The Cat.

Why, he detected them instinctively when your comrades ventured near us!" The eyes of the stooping Natchez Indian flashed at the compliment but, in a moment, he resumed his immobility.

All the blood rushed to Paul's face, and he could not contain his anger.
"Thief! how dare you call me a thief!" he said.
"This is my boat before me," replied Alvarez.