CHAPTER XIII
THE NEWS
A horseman rode furiously over the new road from Fort Bellefontaine toSt. Louis village. He carried news. The expedition of Lewis and Clarkhad returned!
Yes, these men so long thought lost, dead, were coming even now withtheir own story, with their proofs. The boats had passed Charette, hadpassed Bellefontaine, and presently would be pulling up the river tothe water front of St. Louis itself.
"Run, boys!" cried Pierre Chouteau to his servants. "Call out thepeople! Tell them to ring the bells--tell them to fire the guns at thefort yonder. Captains Lewis and Clark have come back again--those whowere dead!"
The little settlement was afire upon the instant. Laughing, talking,ejaculating, weeping in their joy, the people of St. Louis hurried outto meet the men whose voyage meant so much.
At last they saw them coming, the paddles flashing in unison in thehorny hands which tirelessly drove the boats along the river. Theycould see them--men with long beards, clad in leggings of elk hide,moccasins of buffalo and deer; their head-dresses those of theIndians, their long hair braided. And see, in the prow of the foremostcraft sat two men, side by side--Lewis and Clark, the two friends whohad arisen as if from the grave!
"Present arms!" rang out a sharp command, as the boats lined up alongthe wharf.
The brown and scarred rifles came to place.
"Aim! Fire!"
The volley of salutation blazed out even with the chorus of thevoyageurs' cheers. And cheers repeated and unceasing greeted them asthey stepped from their boats to the wharf. In an instant they werehalf overpowered.
"Come with me!"
"No, with me!"
"With me!"
A score of eager voices of the first men of St. Louis claimed theprivilege of hospitality for them. It was almost by force that PierreChouteau bore them away to his castle on the hill. And alwaysquestions, questions, came upon them--ejaculations, exclamations.
"_Ma foi!_" exclaimed more than one pretty French maiden. "Suchmen--such splendid men--savages, yet white! See! See!"
They had gone away as youths, these two captains; they had come backmen. Four thousand miles out and back they had gone, over a countryunmapped, unknown; and they brought back news--news of great, newlands. Was it any wonder that they stood now, grave and dignified,feeling almost for the first time the weight of what they had done?
They passed over the boat-landing and across the wharf, approachingthe foot of the rocky bluff above which lay the long street of St.Louis. Silent, as was his wont, Meriwether Lewis had replied to mostof the greetings only with the smile which so lighted up his face. Butnow, suddenly, he ceased even to smile. His eye rested not upon thefaces of those acclaiming friends, but upon something else beyondthem.
Yes, there it was--the old fur-shed, the storage-house of the tradershere on the wharf, just as he had left it two years before! The doorwas closed. What lay beyond it?
Lewis shuddered, as if caught with chill, as he looked at yonder door.Just there she had stood, more than two years ago, when he started outon this long journey. There he had kissed that face which he had leftin tears--he saw it now! All the glory of his safe return, all thewonderful results which it must mean, he would have given now, couldhe have had back that picture for a different making.
"My matches--my thermometers--my instruments--how did they perform?"
The speaker was Dr. Saugrain, eager to meet again his friends.
"Perfect, doctor, perfect! We have some of the matches yet. As to thethermometers, we broke the last one before we reached the sea."
"You found the sea? _Mon Dieu!_"
"We found the Pacific. We found the Columbia, the Yellowstone--manynew rivers. We have found a new continent--made a new geography. Wepassed the head of the Missouri. We found three great mountainranges."
"The beaver--did you find the beaver yonder?" demanded the voice of aswarthy man who had attended them.
It was Manuel Liza, fur-trader, his eyes glowing in his interest inthat reply.
"Beaver?" William Clark waved a hand. "How many I could not tell you!Thousands and millions--more beaver than ever were known in the worldbefore. Millions of buffalo--elk in droves--bears such as you neversaw--antelope, great horned sheep, otters, muskrat, mink--the greatestfur country in all the world. We could not tell you half!"
"Your men, will they be free to make return up the river with tradingparties?"
William Clark smiled at the keenness of the old French trader.
"You could not possibly have better men," said he.
The men themselves shook their heads in despair. Yes, they said, theyhad found a thousand miles of country ready to be plowed. They hadfound any quantity of hardwood forests and pine groves. They had seenrivers packed with fish until they were half solid--more fish thanever were in all the world before. They had found great rivers whichled far back to the heart of the continent. They had seen trees largerthan any man ever had seen--so large that they hardly could be felledby an ax.
They had found a country where in the winter men perished, and anotherwhere the winters were not cold, and where the bushes grew high astrees. They had found all manner of new animals never known before--inshort, a new world. How could they tell of it?
"Captain," inquired Chouteau at length, "your luggage, yourboxes--where are they?"
Meriwether Lewis pointed to a skin parfleche and a knotted bandannahandkerchief which George Shannon carried for him.
"That is all I have left," said he. "But the mail for the East--themail, M. Chouteau--we must get word to the President!"
"The President has long ago been advised of your death," saidChouteau, laughing. "All the world has said good-by to you. No doubtyou can read your own obituaries."
"We bring them better news than that. What news for us?" asked the twocaptains of their host.
"News!" The voluble Frenchman threw up his hands. "Nothing but news!The entire world is changed since you left. I could not tell you in amonth. The Burr duel----"
"Yes, we did not know of it for two years," said William Clark. "Wehave just heard about it, up river."
"The killing of Mr. Hamilton ended the career of Colonel Burr," saidChouteau. "But for that we might have different times here inMississippi. He had many friends. But you have heard the last newsregarding him?"
It was the dark eye of Meriwether Lewis which now compelled hisattention.
"No? Well, he came out here through this country once more. He wasarrested last summer, on the Natchez Trace, and carried off toWashington. The charge is treason against his government. The countryis full of it--his trial is to be at Richmond. Even now it may begoing on."
He did not notice the sudden change in Meriwether Lewis's face.
"And all the world is swimming in blood across the sea," went on theirgarrulous informant. "Napoleon and Great Britain are at war again.Were it not so, one or the other of them would be at the gates of NewOrleans, that is sure. This country is still discontented. There wasmuch in the plan of Colonel Burr to separate this valley into acountry of its own, independent--to force a secession from therepublic, even though by war on the flag. Indeed, he was prepared forthat; but now his conspiracy is done. Perhaps, however, you do nothold with the theory of Colonel Burr?"
"Hold with the theory of Colonel Burr, sir?" exclaimed the deep voiceof Meriwether Lewis. "Hold with it? This is the first time I haveknown what it was. It was treason! If he had any join him, that was intreason! He sought to disrupt this country? Agree with him? What isthis you tell me? I had never dreamed such a thing as possible ofhim!"
"He had many friends," went on Chouteau; "very many friends. They arescattered even now all up and down this country--men who will notgive up their cause. All those men needed was a leader."
"But, M. Chouteau," rejoined Lewis, "I do not understand--I cannot!What Colonel Burr attempted was an actual treason to this republic. Ifind it difficult to believe that!"
Chouteau shrugged his shoulders.
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"There may be two names for it," he said.
"And every one asked to join the cause was asked to join in treason tohis country. Is it not so?" Lewis went on.
"There may be two names for it," smiled the other, still shrugging.
"He was my friend," said Meriwether Lewis. "I trusted him!"
"Always, I repeat, there are two names for treason. But what puzzlesme is this," Chouteau continued. "What halted the cause of ColonelBurr here in the West? He seemed to be upon the point of success. Hisorganization was complete--his men were in New Orleans--he had greatlands purchased as a rendezvous below. He had understandings withforeign powers, that is sure. Well, then, here is Colonel Burr at St.Louis, all his plans arranged. He is ready to march, to commence hiscampaign, to form this valley into a great kingdom, with Mexico aspart of it. He was a man able to make plans, believe me. But of allthis there comes--nothing! Why? At the last point something failed--noone knew what. He waited for something--no one knew what. Somethinglacked--no one can tell what. And all the time--this is most curiousto me--I learned it through others--Colonel Burr was eager to hearsomething of the expedition of Lewis and Clark into the West. Why? Noone knows! _Does_ no one know?"
The captain did not speak, and Chouteau presently went on.
"Why did Colonel Burr hesitate, why did he give up his planshere--why, indeed, did he fail? You ask me why these things were? Isay, it was because of you--_messieurs_, you two young men, with yourLewis and Clark Expedition! It was _you_ who broke the BurrConspiracy--for so they call it in these days. _Messieurs_, that isyour news!"