Part 32 (1/2)

The rown reckless now Cruzatte, Labi+che, Drouillard--all the adventurers--sang as they traveled, gayer and ay fro interest for thees They were in a different world No one had seen the mountains which they saw The Rockies, the Bitter Roots--these they had passed; and now they e, this time not by the toilso flood of the river The Coluh the Cascades

Down the stor Mount Hood, St Helen's, Rainier, Adareat Cascades, so named at a later date, appeared before the into the last lap of their wild journey and headed doard the sea Cruzatte, Labi+che, Drouillard--all you others--tieurs! None have co neaters You are brave men, every one, and yours is the reward of the brave!

Soon, so said the Indians, they would co in the

”Me,” said Cruzatte, ”I never in lad for see wan now”

But they found no shi+p anywhere in the lower Columbia All the shores were silent, deserted; no vessel lay at anchor Before them lay the empty river, wide as a sea, and told no tales of what had been They were alone, in the third year out froues they had traveled, and ulls As to Columbus these birds had meant land, to our discoverers they e they saw it--rolling in solemn, white-topped waves beyond the bar

Every paddle ceased at its work, and the boats lay tossing on the incoreat trail Yonder lay the Pacific!

Meriwether Lewis turned and looked into the eyes of William Clark, who sat at the bow of the next canoe Each friend nodded to the other

Neither spoke The lips of both were tight

”The big flag, Sergeant Gass!” said Lewis

They turned ashore There had been four mess fires at each encaeants and that of the officers; but now, as they huddled on the wet beach on which they disembarked, the officers ordered the e one

Grouped about this they all stood, ragged, soaked, gaunt, unkempt, yet the happiest co trail to its end

”Men,” said Meriwether Lewis at length, ”we have now arrived at the end of our journey In my belief there has never been a party ed Without your strength and courage we could not have reached the sea It is my wish to thank you for Mr Jefferson, the President of the United States, who sent us here If at any time one of you has been disposed to doubt, or to resent conditions which necessarily were iotten We have done our work Here weill ave hiave expression to his own e about the beach on his hands

”And the confounded shi+ps are all gone back to sea!” gruit here, in the hope of foindin'

some sailor man I'd loike to thrash--and here is no one at all, at all!”

”Will,” said Meriwether Lewis after a ti out the inevitable map, ”I wonder where it was that Alexander Mackenzie struck the Pacific twelve years ago! It must have been far north of here We have coitude west frorees north unite with France or Spain on the south to known exploration by land We have driven the wedge hoain can Great Britain on the north unite with France or Spain on the south to threaten our western frontier If they dispute the title we purchased froht of discovery This, I say, solidifies our republic! We have done the work given us to do”

”Yes,” grinned Willia his wet entleman, Mr Simon Fraser, is just now!”

They could not know that Fraser, the trader as their rival in the great race to the Pacific, was at that time snow-bound in the Rockies more than one thousand miles north of them

Three years after the time when this little band of adventurers stood in the rain at the mouth of the Columbia, Fraser, at the mouth of the river named after him, heard of white men who had come to the ocean somewhere far to the south Word had passed up the coast, a the native tribes, of men who had white skins, and who had with them a black man with curly hair

”That's Lewis and Clark!” said Sies We are beaten!”

So now the largest flag left to Lewis and Clark floated by the side of a single fire on the wet beach on the north shore of the Columbia

Here a rude bivouac was pitched, while the leaders finished their first hasty investigation along the beach

”There is little to attract us here,” said William Clark ”On the south shore there is better shelter for our winter camp” So they headed their little boats across the wide flood of the Columbia