The Magnificent Adventure Part 20

"Sir," said he, addressing the commander, "I speak for France as well as for Spain. I hand over to you the t.i.tle from France, as I hand over to you the rule from Spain. Henceforth both are for you. I salute you, gentlemen!"

With the ruffle of the few American drums the transfer was gravely acknowledged. The flag of Spain slowly dropped from the staff where it had floated. That of France took its place, and for one day floated by courtesy over old St. Louis. On the morrow arose a strange new flag--the flag of the United States. It was supported by one company of regulars and by the little army of joint command--the army of Lewis and Clark--twenty-nine enlisted men in leather!

"Time now, at last!" said William Clark to his friend. "Time for us to say farewell! Boats--three of them--are waiting, and my men are itching to see the buffalo plains. What is the latest news in the village, Merne?" he added. "I've not been across there for two weeks."

"News enough," said Meriwether Lewis gravely. "I just have word of the arrival in town of none other than Colonel Aaron Burr."

"The Vice-President of the United States! What does he here? Tell me, is he bound down the river? Is there anything in all this talk I have heard about Colonel Burr? Is he alone?"

"No. I wish he were alone. Will, she is with him--his daughter, Mrs.

Alston!"

"Well, what of that? Oh, I know--I know, but why should you meet?"

"How can we help meeting here in the society of this little town, whose people are like one family? They have been invited by Mr.

Chouteau to come to his house--I also am a guest there. Will, what shall I do? It torments me!"

"Oh, tut, tut!" said light-hearted William Clark. "What shall you do?

Why, in the first place, pull the frown from your face, Merne. Now, this young lady forsakes her husband, travels--with her father, to be sure, but none the less she travels--along the same trail taken by a certain young man down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, here to St.

Louis. Should you call that a torment? Not I! I should flatter myself over it. A torment? Should you call the flowers that change in sweetness as we ride along through the wood a torment? Let them beware of me! I am no respecter of fortune when it comes to a pretty face, my friend. It is mine if it is here, and if I may kiss it--don't rebuke me, Merne! I am full of the joy of life. Woman--the nearest woman--to call her a torment! And you a soldier! I don't blame them. Torment you? Yes, they will, so long as you allow it. Then don't allow it!"

"You preach very well, Will. Of course, I know you don't practise what you preach--who does?"

"Well, perhaps! But, seriously, why take life so hard, Merne? Why don't you relax--why don't you swim with the current for a time? We live but once. Tell me, do you think there was but one woman made for each of us men in all the world? My faith, if that be true, I have had more than my share, I fear, as I have pa.s.sed along! But even when it comes to marrying and settling down to hoeing an acre of corn-land and raising a shoat or two for the family--tell me, Merne, what woman does a man marry? Doesn't he marry the one at hand--the one that is ready and waiting? Do you think fortune would always place the one woman in the world ready for the one man at the one time, just when the hoeing and the shoat-raising was to the fore? It is absurd, man! Nature dares not take such chances--and does not."

Lewis did not answer his friend's jesting argument.

"Listen, Merne," Clark went on. "The memory of a kiss is better than the memory of a tear. No, listen, Merne! The print of a kiss is sweet as water of a spring when you are athirst. And the spring shows none the worse for the taste of heaven it gave you. Lips and water alike--they tell no tales. They are goods the G.o.ds gave us as part of life. But the great thirst--the great thirst of a man for power, for deeds, for danger, for adventure, for accomplishment--ah, that is ours, and that is harder to slake, I am thinking! A man's deeds are his life. They tell the tale."

"His deeds! Yes, you are right, they do, indeed, tell the tale. Let us hope the reckoning will stand clean at last."

"Merne, you are a soldier, not a preacher."

"Will, you are neither--you are only a boy!"

CHAPTER XIV

THE RENT IN THE ARMOR

Aaron Burr came to St. Louis in the spring of 1804 as much in desperation as with definite plans. Matters were going none too well for him. All the time he was getting advices from the lower country, where lay the center of his own audacious plans; but the thought of the people was directed westward, up the Missouri.

The fame of the Lewis and Clark expedition now had gathered volume.

Const.i.tution or no Const.i.tution, the purchase of Louisiana had been completed, the transfer had been formally made. The American wedge was driving on through. If ever he was to do anything for his own enterprise, it was now high time.

Burr's was a mind to see to the core of any problem in statecraft. He knew what this sudden access of interest in the West indicated, so far as his plans were concerned. It must be stopped--else it would be too late for any dream of Aaron Burr for an empire of his own.

His resources were dwindling. He needed funds for the many secret agents in his employ--needed yet more funds for the purchase and support of his lands in the South. And the minister of Great Britain had given plain warning that unless this expedition up the Missouri could be stopped, no further aid need be expected from him.

Little by little Burr saw hope slip away from him. True, Captain Lewis was still detained by his duties among the Osage Indians, a little way out from the city; but the main expedition had actually started.

William Clark, occupied with the final details, did not finally get his party under way until five days after the formal transfer of the new territory of Louisiana to our flag, and three days after Burr's arrival. At last, however, on the 14th of May, the three boats had left St. Louis wharf, with their full complement of men and the last of the supplies aboard for the great voyage. Captain Clark, ever light-hearted and careless of his spelling-book, if not of his rifle, says it was "a jentle brease" which aided the oars and the square-sail as they started up the river.

a.s.suredly the bark of Aaron Burr was sailing under no propitious following wind. Distracted, he paced up and down his apartment in the home where he was a guest, preoccupied, absorbed, almost ready to despair. He spoke but little, but time and again he cast an estimating eye upon the young woman who accompanied him.

"You are ill, Theodosia!" he exclaimed at last "Come, come, my daughter, this will not do! Have you no arts of the toilet that can overcome the story of your megrims? Shall I get you some sort of bitter herbs? You need your brightest face, your best apparel now.

These folk of St. Louis must see us at our best, my dear, our very best. Besides----"

He needed not to complete the sentence. Theodosia Alston knew well enough what was in her father's mind--knew well enough why they both were here. It was because she would not have come alone. And she knew that the burden of the work they had at heart must once more lie upon her shoulders. She once more must see Captain Meriwether Lewis--and it must be soon, if ever. He was reported as being ready to leave town at once upon his return from the Osage Indians.

But courtesy did not fail the young Virginian, and at last--although with dread in his own heart--within an hour of his actual departure, he called to pay his compliments to guests so distinguished as these, to a man so high in rank under the government which he himself served.

He found it necessary to apologize for his garb, suited rather to the trail than to the drawing-room. He stood in the hall of the Chouteau home, a picture of the soldier of the frontier rather than the courtier of the capital.

His three-cornered military hat, his blue uniform coat--these made the sole formality of his attire, for his feet were moccasined, his limbs were clad in tight-fitting buckskins, and his s.h.i.+rt was of rough linsey, suitable for the work ahead.

"I ask your pardon, Colonel Burr," said he, "for coming to you as I am, but the moment for my start is now directly at hand. I could not leave without coming to present my duties to you and Mrs. Alston.

Indeed, I have done so at once upon my return to town. I pray you carry back to Mr. Jefferson my sincerest compliments. Say to him, if you will, that we are setting forth with high hopes of success."

Formal, cold, polite--it was the one wish of Captain Lewis to end this interview as soon as he might, and to leave all sleeping dogs lying as they were.

But Aaron Burr planned otherwise. His low, deep voice was never more persuasive, his dark eye never more compelling--nor was his bold heart ever more in trepidation than now, as he made excuse for delay--delay--delay.

"My daughter, Mrs. Alston, will join us presently," he said. "So you are ready, Captain Lewis?"

"We are quite prepared, Colonel Burr. My men are on ahead two days'

journey, camped at St. Charles, and waiting for me to overtake them.

Dr. Saugrain, Mr. Chouteau, Mr. Labadie--one or two others of the gentlemen in the city--are so kind as to offer me a convoy of honor so far as St. Charles. We are quite flattered. So now we start--they are waiting for me at the wharf now, and I must go. All bridges are burned behind me!"

"_All bridges burned?_"

The deep voice of Aaron Burr almost trembled. His keen eye searched the face of the young man before him.

"Every one," replied the young Virginian. "I do not know how or when I may return. Perhaps Mr. Clark or myself may come back by sea--should we ever reach the sea. We can only trust to Providence."

He was bowing and extending his own hand in farewell, with polite excuses as to his haste--relieved that his last ordeal had been spared him. He turned, as he felt rather than heard the approach of another, whose coming caused his heart almost to stop beating--the woman dreaded and demanded by every fiber of his being.

"Oh, not so fast, not so fast!" laughed Theodosia Alston as she came into the room, offering her hand. "I heard you talking, and have been hurrying to pretty myself up for Captain Lewis. What? Were you trying to run away without ever saying good-by to me? And how you are prettied up!"

Her gaze, following her light speech, resolved itself into one of admiration. Theodosia Alston, as she looked, found him a goodly picture as he stood ready for the trail.

"I was just going, yes," stammered Meriwether Lewis. "I had hoped----"

But what he had hoped he did not say.

"Why might we not walk down with you to the wharf, if you are so soon to go?" she demanded--her own self-control concealing any disappointment she may have felt at her cavalier reception.

"An excellent idea!" said Aaron Burr, backing his daughter's hand, and trusting to her to have some plan. "A warrior must spend his last word with some woman, captain! Go you on ahead--I surrender my daughter to you, and I shall follow presently to bid you a last G.o.dspeed. You said those other gentlemen were to join you there?"