they lay in camp far down the river whose flood had borne them on so rapidly. they had passed through the last of the dangerous country of the sioux, defying the wild bands whose gantlet they had to run, but which they had run in safety. ahead was only what might be called a pleasure journey, to the end of the river trail.
the men were happy as they lay about their fires, which glowed dully in the dusk. each was telling what he presently was going to do, when he got his pay at old st. louis, not far below.
william clark, weary with the day’s labor, had excused himself and gone to his blankets. lewis, the responsible head of the expedition, alone, aloof, silent, sat moodily looking into his fire, the victim of one of his recurring moods of melancholy.
he stirred at length and raised himself restlessly. it was not unusual for him to be sleepless, and always, while awake, he had with him the problems of his many duties; but at this hour something unwontedly disturbing had come to meriwether lewis.
he turned once more and bent down, as if figuring [pg 281]out some puzzle of a baffling trail. picking up a bit of stick, he traced here and there, in the ashes at his feet, points and lines, as if it were some problem in geometry. uneasy, strange of look, now and again he muttered to himself.
“hoh!” he exclaimed at length, almost like an indian, as if in some definite conclusion.
he had run his trail to the end, had finished the problem in the ashes.
“hoh!” his voice again rumbled in his chest.
and now he threw his tracing-stick away. he sat, his head on one side, as if looking at some distant star. it seemed that he heard a voice calling to him in the night, so faintly that he could not be sure. his face, thin, gaunt, looked set and hard in the light of his little fire. something stern, something wistful, too, showed in his eyes, frowning under the deep brows. was meriwether lewis indeed gone mad? had the hardships of the wilderness at last taken their toll of him—as had sometimes happened to other men?
he rose, limping a little, for he still was weak and stiff from his wound, though disdaining staff or crotched bough to lean upon. he looked about him cautiously.
the camp was slumbering. here and there, stirred by the passing breeze, the embers of a little fire glowed like an eye in the dark. the men slept, some under their rude shelters, others in the open under the stars, each rolled in his robe, his rifle under the flap to keep it from the dew.
meriwether lewis knew the place of every man in [pg 282]the encampment. ordway, pryor, gass—each of the three sergeants slept by his own mess fire, his squad around him. mcneal, bratton, shields, cruzatte, reuben fields, goodrich, whitehouse, coalter, shannon—the captain knew where each lay, rolled up like a mummy. he had marked each when he threw down his bed-roll that night; for meriwether lewis was a leader of men, and no detail escaped him.
he passed now, stealthy as an indian, along the rows of sleeping forms. his moccasined foot made no sound. save for his uniform coat, he was clad as a savage himself; and his alert eye, his noiseless foot, might have marked him one. he sought some one of these—and he knew where lay the man he wished to find.
he stood beside him silently at last, looking down at the sleeping figure. the man lay a little apart from the others, for he was to stand second watch that night, and the second guard usually slept where he would not disturb the others when awakened for his turn of duty.
this man—he was long and straight in his blankets, and filled them well—suddenly awoke, and lay staring up. he had not been called, no hand had touched him, it was not yet time for guard relief; but he had felt a presence, even as he slept.
he stared up at a tall and motionless figure looking down. with a swift movement he reached for his rifle; but the next instant, even as he lay, his hand went to his forehead in salute. he was looking up into the face of his commander!
[pg 283]
“shannon!” he heard a hoarse voice command him. “get up!”
george shannon, the youngest of the party, sprang out of his bed half clad.
“captain!” he saluted again. “what is it, sir?” he half whispered, as if in apprehension.
“put on your jacket, shannon. come with me!”
shannon obeyed hurriedly. half stripped, he stood a fine figure of young manhood himself, lithe, supple, yet developed into rugged strength by his years of labor on the trail.
“what is it, captain?” he inquired once more.
they were apart from the others now, in the shadows beyond lewis’s fire. shannon had caught sight of his leader’s countenance, noting the wildness of its look, its drawn and haggard lines.
his commander’s hand thrust in his face a clutch of papers, folded—letters, they seemed to be. shannon could see the trembling of the hand that held them.
“you know what i want, shannon! i want the rest of these—i want the last one of them! give it to me now!”
the youth felt on his shoulder the grip of a hand hard as steel. he did not make any answer, but stood dumb, wondering what might be the next act of this man, who seemed half a madman.
“five of them!” he heard the same hoarse voice go on. “there must be another—there must be one more, at least. you have done this—you brought these letters. give me the last one of them! why [pg 284]don’t you answer?” with sudden and violent strength lewis shook the boy as a dog might a rat. “answer me!”
“captain, i cannot!” broke out shannon.
“what? then there is another?”
“i’ll not answer! i’ll stand my trial before court martial, if you please.”
again the heavy hand on his shoulder.
“there will be no trial!” he heard the hoarse voice of his commander saying. “i cannot sleep. i must have the last one. there is another!”
shannon laid a hand on the iron wrist.
“how do you know?” he faltered. “why do you think——”
“am i not your leader? is it not my business to know? i am a woodsman. you thought you had covered your trail, but it was plain. i know you are the messenger who has been bringing these letters to me from her. i need not name her, and you shall not! for what reason you did this—by what plan—i do not know, but i know you did it. you were absent each time that i found one of these letters. that was too cunning to be cunning! you are young, shannon, you have something to learn. you sing songs—love songs—you write letters—love letters, perhaps! you are irish—you have sentiment. there is romance about you—you are the man she would choose to do what you have done. being a woman, she knew, she chose well; but it is my business to read all these signs.
“give me that letter! i am your officer.”
[pg 285]
“captain, i will not!”
“i tell you i cannot sleep! give it to me, boy, or, by heaven, you yourself shall sleep the long sleep here and now! what? you still refuse?”
“yes, i’ll not be driven to it. you say i’m irish. i am—i’ll not give up a woman’s secret—it’s a question of honor, captain. there is a woman concerned, as you know.”
“yes!”
“and i promised her, too. i swear i never planned any wrong to either of you. i would die at your order now, as you know; but you have no right to order this, and i’ll not answer!”
the hand closed at his throat. the boy could not speak, but still meriwether lewis growled on at him.
“shannon! speak! why have you kept secrets from your commanding officer? you have begun to tell me—tell me all!”
the boy’s hand clutched at his leader’s wrists. at length lewis loosed him.
“captain,” began the victim, “what do you mean? what can i do?”
“i will tell you what i mean, shannon. i promised to care for you and bring you back safe to your parents. you’ll never see your parents again, save on one condition. i trusted you, thought you had special loyalty for me. was i wrong?”
“on my honor, captain,” the boy broke out, “i’d have died for you any time, and i’d do it now! i’ve worked my very best. you’re my officer, my chief!”
with one movement, meriwether lewis flung off [pg 286]the uniform coat that he wore. they stood now, man to man, stripped, and neither gave back from the other.
“shannon,” said lewis, “i’m not your officer now. i’m going to choke the truth out of you. will you fight me, or are you afraid?”
the last cruelty was too much. the boy began to gulp.
“i’m not afraid to fight, sir. i’d fight any man, but you—no, i’ll not do it! even stripped, you’re my commander still.”
“is that the reason?”
“not all of it. you’re weak, captain, your wound has you in a fever. ’twould not be fair—i could do as i liked with you now. i’ll not fight you. i couldn’t!”
“what? 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!”
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.
“what is it, boy?” he whispered at last. “what have i done? what did i say?”
shannon was sobbing now.
“captain,” he said, and thrust a hand into the bosom [pg 287]of his tunic—“captain, for heaven’s sake, don’t do that! don’t apologize to me. i understand. leave me alone. here’s the letter. there were six—this is the last.”
lewis’s strained muscles relaxed, his blazing eyes softened.
“shannon!” he whispered once more. “what have i done?”
he took the letter in his hand, but did not look at it, although his fingers could feel the seal unbroken.
“why do you give it to me now, boy?” he asked at length. “what changed you?”
“because it’s orders, sir. she ordered me—that is, she asked me—to give you these letters at times when you seemed to need them most—when you were sick or in trouble, when anything had gone wrong. we couldn’t figure so far on ahead when i ought to give you each one. i had to do my best. i didn’t know at first, but now i see that you’re sick. you’re not yourself—you’re in trouble. she told me not to let you know who carried them,” he added rather inconsequently. “she said that that might end it all. she thought that you might come back.”
“come back—when?”
“she didn’t know—we couldn’t any of us tell—it was all a guess. all this about the letters was left to me, to do my best. i couldn’t ask you, captain, or any one. i don’t know what was in the letters, sir, and i don’t ask you, for that’s not my business; but i promised her.”
“what did she promise you?”
[pg 288]
“nothing. she didn’t promise me pay, because she knew i wouldn’t have done it for pay. she only looked at me, and she seemed sad, i don’t know why. i couldn’t 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.”
“when was all this?”
“at 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.”
“yes, i know, shannon.”
“i 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 woman’s reputation. she thought the men might talk, and that would be bad for you. i could not refuse her. do you blame me now?”
“no, shannon. no! in all this there is but one to blame, and that is your officer, myself!”
“i 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 there—more a lady, somehow. of course, i’m not an officer or a gentleman—i’m only a boy from the backwoods, and only a private soldier. i couldn’t break my promise to her, and i couldn’t very well obey your orders unless i did. if i’ve broken any of the regulations you can punish me. you see, i held back this letter—i gave it to you now because i had the feeling that i [pg 289]ought to—that she would want me to. it is the fever, sir!”
“aye, the fever!”
silence fell as they stood there in the night. the boy went on, half tremblingly:
“please, please, captain lewis, don’t call me a coward! i don’t believe i am. i was trying to do something for you—for both of you. it was always on my mind about these letters. i did my best and now——”
and now it was the eye of meriwether lewis that suddenly was wet; it was his voice that trembled.
“boy,” said he, “i am your officer. your officer asks your pardon. i have tried myself. i was guilty. will you forget this?”
“not a word to a soul in the world, captain!” broke out shannon. “about a woman, you see, we do not talk.”
“no, mr. shannon, about a woman we gentlemen do not talk. but now tell me, boy, what can i do for you—what can i ever do for you?”
“nothing in the world, captain—but just one thing.”
“what is it?”
“please, sir, tell me that you don’t think me a coward!”
“a coward? no, shannon, you are the bravest fellow i ever met!”
the hand on the boy’s shoulder was kindly now. the right hand of captain meriwether lewis sought that of private george shannon. the madness of the trail, of the wilderness—the madness of absence [pg 290]and of remorse—had 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 kentucky’s 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 fashion—a 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 six—the 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 me—which you loved more than fame or fortune, honor or glory for yourself. the wilderness! it holds you. and for me—when at last i come [pg 291]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 heart—that you never can come back—how then could i go on?
meriwether—merne—merne—i 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 us—more 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 me—to one who never was and never can be, but is——
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 it—had 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 trusted—nay, whom she had loved!
