The Magnificent Adventure Part 5

"Yes, my son?"

"Your burden is grievous hard, and yet----"

"Yes, my son?"

But Meriwether Lewis could not speak further. He stood now, his jaws set hard, looking out of the window.

The older man came and gently laid a hand upon his shoulder.

"Come, come, my son," said he, his own voice low and of a kindness it could a.s.sume at times. "You must not--you must not yield to this, I say. Shake off this melancholy which so obsesses you. I know whence it comes--your father gave it you, and you are not to blame; but you have more than your father's strength to aid you. And you have me, your friend, who can understand."

Lewis only turned on him an eye so full of anguish as caused the older man to knit his brow in deep concern.

"What is it, Merne?" he demanded. "Tell me. Ah, you cannot tell? I know! 'Tis the old melancholy, and something more, Merne, my boy. Tell me--ah, yes, it is a woman!"

The young man did not speak.

"I have often told all my young friends," said Mr. Jefferson slowly, after a time, "that they should marry not later than twenty-three--it is wrong to cheat the years of life--and you approach thirty now, my son. Why linger? Listen to me. No young man may work at his best and have a woman's face in his desk to haunt him. That will not do. We all have handicap enough without that."

But still Meriwether could only look into the face of his superior.

"I know very well, my son," the President continued. "I know it all.

Put her out of your heart, my boy. Would you shame yourself--and her--and me?"

"No! Never would I do that, Mr. Jefferson, believe me. But now I must beg of you--please, sir, let me go soon--let it be at once!"

The older man stood looking at him for a time in silence, as he went on hurriedly:

"I must say good-by to you, best and n.o.blest of men. Indeed, I have said good-by to--everything."

"As you say, your case is hopeless?"

"Yes, sir."

"Ah, well, we have both been planning for our Western expedition these ten years, my son; so why should we fret if matters conspire to bring it about a trifle earlier than we planned?"

"I asked you when I was a boy to send me, but you could not then."

"No, but instead I sent yonder maundering Michaux. He, Ledyard, and all the others failed me. They never saw the great vision. There it lies, unknown, tremendous--no man knows what--that new country. I have had to hide from the people of this republic this secret purpose which you and I have had of exploring the vast Western country. I have picked you as the one man fitted for that work. I do not make mistakes. You are a born woodsman and traveler--you are ready to my hand as the instrument for this magnificent adventure. I cannot well spare you now--but yes, you must go!"

They stood there, two men who made our great adventure for us--vision-seers, vision-owned, gazing each into the other's eyes.

"Send me now, Mr. Jefferson!" repeated Meriwether Lewis. "Send me now.

I will mend to usefulness again. I will work for you all my life, if need be--and I want my name clear with you."

The old man laid a kindly hand upon his shoulder.

"I must yield you to your destiny," said he. "It will be a great one."

He turned aside, a hand to his lip as he paced uncertainly. "But I still am wondering what our friends are doing yonder in France," said he. "That is the question. Livingston, Monroe, and the others--what are they doing with Napoleon Bonaparte? The news from France--but stay," he added. "Wait! I had forgotten. Come, we shall see about it!"

With the sudden enthusiasm of a boy he caught his young aide by the arm. They pa.s.sed down the hall, out by the rear entrance and across the White House grounds to the brick stables which then stood at the rear.

Mr. Jefferson paid no attention to the sleek animals there which looked in greeting toward him. Instead, he pa.s.sed in front of the series of stalls, and without excuse or explanation hurriedly began to climb the steep ladder which led to the floor above.

They stood at length in the upper apartment of the stable buildings.

It was not a mow or feed loft, but rather a bird loft, devoted to the use of many pigeons. All about the eaves were arranged many boxes--nesting places, apparently, although none of the birds entered the long room, which seemed free of any occupancy.

Mr. Jefferson stood for a moment, eagerly scanning the rear of the tier of boxes. An exclamation broke from him. He hurried forward with a sudden gesture to a little flag which stood up, like the tilt of a fisherman on the ice, at the side of the box to which he pointed.

"Done!" said he.

He reached up to the box that he had indicated, pressed down a little catch, opened the back and looked in. Again an exclamation escaped him.

He put in a hand gingerly, and, tenderly imprisoning the bird which he found therein, drew it forth, his long fingers eagerly lifting its wings, examining its legs.

It could easily be seen that the box was arranged with a door on a tripping-latch, so that the pigeon, on entering, would imprison itself. It was apparent that Mr. Jefferson was depending upon the natural homing instinct of his carrier pigeons to bring him some message.

"I told them," said he, "to loose a half-dozen birds at once. See!

See!"

He unrolled from one leg of the prisoner a little cylinder of paper covered with tinfoil and tied firmly in its place. It was the first wireless message ever received at Was.h.i.+ngton. None since that time has carried a greater burden. It announced a transaction in empires.

Mr. Jefferson read, and spread out the paper that his aide might read:

General Bonaparte signed May 2--Fifteen millions--Rejoice!

In no wider phrasing than that came the news of the great Louisiana Purchase, by virtue of which this republic--whether by chance, by result of greed warring with greed, or through the providence of Almighty G.o.d, who shall say?--gained the great part of that vast and incalculably valuable realm which now reaches from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. What wealth that great empire held no man had dreamed, nor can any dream today; for, a century later, its story is but beginning.

Century on century, that story still will be in the making. A home for millions of the earth's best, a hope for millions of the earth's less fortunate--granary of the peoples, mint of the nations, birthplace and growing-ground of the new race of men--who could have measured that land then--who could measure it today?

And its t.i.tle pa.s.sed, announced in seven words, carried by a bird wandering in the air, but bound unerringly to the ark of G.o.d's covenant with man--the covenant of hope and progress.

Thomas Jefferson stretched out his right hand to meet that of Meriwether Lewis. Their clasp was strong and firm. The eye of each man blazed.

"Mr. Jefferson," said Meriwether Lewis, "this is your monument!"

"And yours," was the reply. "Come, then!"

He turned to the stairs, the pigeon still fondled in his arm. That bird--a white one, with slate-blue tips to its wings--never needed to labor again, for Mr. Jefferson kept it during its life, and long after its death.

"Come now," he said, as he began to descend the ladder once more. "The bird was loosed yesterday, late in the afternoon. It has done its sixty or seventy-five miles an hour for us, counting out time lost in the night. The s.h.i.+p which brought this news docked at New York yesterday. The post stages carrying it hither cannot arrive before tomorrow. This is news--the greatest of news that we could have.

Yesterday--this morning--we were a young and weak republic. Tomorrow we shall be one of the powers of the world. Go, now--you have been held in leash long enough, and the time to start has come. Tomorrow you will go westward, to that new country which now is ours!"

Neither said anything further until once again they were in the President's little office-room; but Thomas Jefferson's eye now was afire.

"I count this the most important enterprise in which this country ever was engaged," he exclaimed, his hands clenched. "Yonder lies the greater America--you lead an army which will make far wider conquest than all our troops won in the Revolutionary War. The stake is larger than any man may dream. I see it--you see it--in time others also will see. Tell me, my son, tell me once more! Come what may, no matter what power shall move you, you will be faithful in this great trust? If I have your promise, then I shall rest a.s.sured."

Thomas Jefferson, more agitated than any man had ever seen him, dropped half trembling into his chair, his s.h.a.ggy red mane about his forehead, his long fingers shaking.