The Magnificent Adventure - Emerson Hough (fiction books to read .txt) š
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With one movement, Meriwether Lewis flung off the uniform coat that he wore. They stood now, man to man, stripped, and neither gave back from the other.
āShannon,ā said Lewis, āIām not your officer now. Iām going to choke the truth out of you. Will you fight me, or are you afraid?ā
The last cruelty was too much. The boy began to gulp.
āIām not afraid to fight, sir. Iād fight any man, but youāno, Iāll not do it! Even stripped, youāre my commander still.ā
āIs that the reason?ā
āNot all of it. Youāre weak, Captain, your wound has you in a fever. āTwould not be fairāI could do as I liked with you now. Iāll not fight you. I couldnāt!ā
āWhat? You will not obey me as your officer, and will not fight me as a man? Do you want to be whipped? Do you want to be shot? Do you want to be drummed out of camp tomorrow morning? By Heaven, Private Shannon, one of these choices will be yours!ā
But something of the icy silence of the youth who heard these terrible words gave pause even to the madman that was Meriwether Lewis now. He halted, his hooked hands extended for the spring upon his opponent.
āWhat is it, boy?ā he whispered at last. āWhat have I done? What did I say?ā
Shannon was sobbing now.
āCaptain,ā he said, and thrust a hand into the bosom of his tunicāāCaptain, for Heavenās sake, donāt do that! Donāt apologize to me. I understand. Leave me alone. Hereās the letter. There were sixāthis is the last.ā
Lewisās strained muscles relaxed, his blazing eyes softened.
āShannon!ā he whispered once more. āWhat have I done?ā
He took the letter in his hand, but did not look at it, although his fingers could feel the seal unbroken.
āWhy do you give it to me now, boy?ā he asked at length. āWhat changed you?ā
āBecause itās orders, sir. She ordered meāthat is, she asked meāto give you these letters at times when you seemed to need them mostāwhen you were sick or in trouble, when anything had gone wrong. We couldnāt figure so far on ahead when I ought to give you each one. I had to do my best. I didnāt know at first, but now I see that youāre sick. Youāre not yourselfāyouāre in trouble. She told me not to let you know who carried them,ā he added rather inconsequently. āShe said that that might end it all. She thought that you might come back.ā
āCome backāwhen?ā
āShe didnāt knowāwe couldnāt any of us tellāit was all a guess. All this about the letters was left to me, to do my best. I couldnāt ask you, Captain, or any one. I donāt know what was in the letters, sir, and I donāt ask you, for thatās not my business; but I promised her.ā
āWhat did she promise you?ā
āNothing. She didnāt promise me pay, because she knew I wouldnāt have done it for pay. She only looked at me, and she seemed sad, I donāt know why. I couldnāt help but promise her. I gave her my word of honor, because she said her letters might be of use to you, but that no one else must know that she had written them.ā
āWhen was all this?ā
āAt St. Louis, just before we started. I reckon she picked me out because she thought I was especially close to you. You know I have been so.ā
āYes, I know, Shannon.ā
āI thought I was doing something for you. You see, she told me that her name must not be mentioned, that no one must know about this, because it would hurt a womanās reputation. She thought the men might talk, and that would be bad for you. I could not refuse her. Do you blame me now?ā
āNo, Shannon. No! In all this there is but one to blame, and that is your officer, myself!ā
āI did not think there was any harm in my getting the letters to you, Captain. I knew that lady was your friend. I know who she is. She was more beautiful than any woman in St. Louis when we were thereāmore a lady, somehow. Of course, Iām not an officer or a gentlemanāIām only a boy from the backwoods, and only a private soldier. I couldnāt break my promise to her, and I couldnāt very well obey your orders unless I did. If Iāve broken any of the regulations you can punish me. You see, I held back this letterāI gave it to you now because I had the feeling that I ought toāthat she would want me to. It is the fever, sir!ā
āAye, the fever!ā
Silence fell as they stood there in the night. The boy went on, half tremblingly:
āPlease, please, Captain Lewis, donāt call me a coward! I donāt believe I am. I was trying to do something for youāfor both of you. It was always on my mind about these letters. I did my best and nowāāā
And now it was the eye of Meriwether Lewis that suddenly was wet; it was his voice that trembled.
āBoy,ā said he, āI am your officer. Your officer asks your pardon. I have tried myself. I was guilty. Will you forget this?ā
āNot a word to a soul in the world, Captain!ā broke out Shannon. āAbout a woman, you see, we do not talk.ā
āNo, Mr. Shannon, about a woman we gentlemen do not talk. But now tell me, boy, what can I do for youāwhat can I ever do for you?ā
āNothing in the world, Captainābut just one thing.ā
āWhat is it?ā
āPlease, sir, tell me that you donāt think me a coward!ā
āA coward? No, Shannon, you are the bravest fellow I ever met!ā
The hand on the boyās shoulder was kindly now. The right hand of Captain Meriwether Lewis sought that of Private George Shannon. The madness of the trail, of the wildernessāthe madness of absence and of remorseāhad swept by, so that Lewis once more was officer, gentleman, just and generous man.
Shannon stooped and picked up the coat that his captain had cast from him. He held it up, and aided his commander again to don it. Then, saluting, he marched off to his bivouac bed.
From that day to the end of his life, no one ever heard George Shannon mention a word of this episode. Beyond the two leaders of the party, none of the expedition ever knew who had played the part of the mysterious messenger. Nor did any one know, later, whence came the funds which eventually carried George Shannon through his schooling in the East, through his studies for the bar, and into the successful practise which he later built up in Kentuckyās largest city.
Meriwether Lewis, limp and lax now, shivering in the chill under the reaction from his excitement, turned away, stepped back to his own lodge, and contrived a little light, after the frontier fashionāa rag wick in a shallow vessel of grease. With this uncertain aid he bent down closer to read the finely written lines, which ran:
My Friend:
This is my last letter to you. This is the one I have marked Number Sixāthe last one for my messenger.
Yes, since you have not returned, now I know you never can. Rest well, then, sir, and let me be strong to bear the news when at length it comes, if it ever shall come. Let the winds and the waters sound your requiem in that wilderness which you loved more than meāwhich you loved more than fame or fortune, honor or glory for yourself. The wilderness! It holds you. And for meāwhen at last I come to lay me down, I hope, too, some wilderness of wood or waters will be around me with its vast silences.
After all, what is life? Such a brief thing! Little in it but duty done well and faithfully. I know you did yours while you lived. I have tried to do mine. It has been hard for me to see what was duty. If I knew as absolute truth that conviction now in my heartāthat you never can come backāhow then could I go on?
MeriwetherāMerneāMerneāI have been calling to you! Have you not heard me? Can you not hear me now, calling to you across all the distances to come back to me? I cannot give you up to the world, because I have loved you so much for myself. It was a cruel fate that parted usāmore and more I know that, even as more and more I resolve to do what is my duty. But, oh, I miss you! Come back to meāto one who never was and never can be, but isāā
Yours,
Theodosia.
It took him long to read this letter. At last his trembling hand dropped the creased and broken sheets. The guttering light went out. The men were silent, sleeping near their fires. The peace of the great plains lay all about.
She had said itāhad said that last fated word. Now indeed he knew what voice had called to him across the deeps!
He reflected now that all these messages had been written to him before he left her; and that when he saw her last she was standing, tears in her eyes, outraged by the act of the man whom she had trustedānay, whom she had loved!
CHAPTER XIII THE NEWSA horseman rode furiously over the new road from Fort Bellefontaine to St. Louis village. He carried news. The expedition of Lewis and Clark had returned!
Yes, these men so long thought lost, dead, were coming even now with their own story, with their proofs. The boats had passed Charette, had passed Bellefontaine, and presently would be pulling up the river to the water front of St. Louis itself.
āRun, boys!ā cried Pierre Chouteau to his servants. āCall out the people! Tell them to ring the bellsātell them to fire the guns at the fort yonder. Captains Lewis and Clark have come back againāthose who were dead!ā
The little settlement was afire upon the instant. Laughing, talking, ejaculating, weeping in their joy, the people of St. Louis hurried out to meet the men whose voyage meant so much.
At last they saw them coming, the paddles flashing in unison in the horny hands which tirelessly drove the boats along the river. They could see themāmen with long beards, clad in leggings of elk hide, moccasins of buffalo and deer; their head-dresses those of the Indians, their long hair braided. And see, in the prow of the foremost craft sat two men, side by sideāLewis and Clark, the two friends who had arisen as if from the grave!
āPresent arms!ā rang out a sharp command, as the boats lined up along the wharf.
The brown and scarred rifles came to place.
āAim! Fire!ā
The volley of salutation blazed out even with the chorus of the voyageursā cheers. And cheers repeated and unceasing greeted them as they stepped from their boats to the wharf. In an instant they were half overpowered.
āCome with me!ā
āNo, with me!ā
āWith me!ā
A score of eager voices of the first men of St. Louis claimed the privilege of hospitality for them. It was almost by force that Pierre Chouteau bore them away to his castle on the hill. And always questions, questions, came upon themāejaculations, exclamations.
āMa foi!ā exclaimed more than one pretty French maiden. āSuch menāsuch splendid menāsavages, yet white! See! See!ā
They had gone away as youths, these two captains; they had come back men. Four thousand miles out and back they had gone, over a country unmapped, unknown; and they brought back newsānews of great, new lands. Was it any wonder that they stood now, grave and dignified, feeling almost for the first time the weight of what they
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