Part 12 (1/2)

CHAPTER VIII

THE PARTING

There were others in Washi+ngton who did not sleep that night A light burned until sunrise in the little office-roo its litter of unfinished business, lay a large map--a map which today would cause any schoolboy to smile, but which at that ti the interior of the great North American continent It had served to afford anxious study for two men, these many hours

”Yonder it lies, Captain Lewis!” said Mr Jefferson at length ”How vast, how little known! We know our climate and soil here It is but reasonable to suppose that they exist yonder as they do with us, in some part, at least If so, yonder are homes for millions now unborn

Had General Bonaparte known the value of that land, he would have fought the world rather than alienate such a region”

The President tapped a long forefinger on the map

”This, then,” he went on, ”is your country Find it out--bring back to etable and anie animals there may be of which science has not yet account I hold it probable that thereexamples of the mastodon, whose bones we have found in Kentucky You yourself may see those enormous creatures yet alive”

Meriwether Lewis listened in silence Mr Jefferson turned to another branch of his theme

”I fancy that some time there will be a canal built across the isthmus that binds this continent to the one below--a canal which shall connect the two great oceans But that is far in the future It is for you to spy out the way now, across the country itself Explore it--discover it--it is our neorld

”A few le this appropriation through Congress--twenty-five hundred dollars--the price of a poor Virginia farm! I have tampered with the Constitution itself in order to inal territorial lines I have taken er of God will be your guide and your protector Are you ready, Captain Lewis? It is late”

Indeed, the sun was rising over Washi+ngton, thethe banks of the Potomac

”I can start in half an hour,” replied Meriwether Lewis

”Are your ether?”

”The rendezvous is at Harper's Ferry, up the river The wagons with the supplies are ready there I will take boat from here myself with a few of the men Not later than tomorrow afternoon I proes behind us, and cross none until we come to them”

”Spoken like a soldier! It is in your hands Go then!”

There was one look, one handclasp The two ain for years

Mr Jefferson did not look fro friend, nor did the latter again call at the door to say good-by Theirs was indeed a warrior-like si when Meriwether Lewis at length descended the steps of the Executive Mansion

He was clad now for his journey, not in buckskin hunting-garb, but with regard for the conventions of a country by no means free of convention His jacket was of close wool, belted; his boots were high and suitable for riding His stock, snohite--for always Meriwether Leas ih around his throat, in spite of the hot suloved He seeentleman

No retinue, however, attended him; no servant was at his side He went afoot, and carried with hi rifle which he never entrusted to any hands save his own Close wrapped around the stock, on the crook of his ar over his shoulder, was a soiled buckskin pouch, which went alith the rifle--the ”possible sack” of the wilderness hunter of that time It contained his bullets, bullet-, a set of awls

Such was the leader of one of the great expeditions of the world

Meriwether Lewis had few good-bys to say He had written but one letter--to hisIt orded thus: