"Roll out, men, roll out!"
The sleeping men stirred under their robes and blankets and turned out, quickly awake, after the fashion of the wilderness. The sentinel came in, his moccasins wet, his tunic girded tight against the cool of the morning, which even at that season was chill upon the high plains. Soon the fires were alight and the odors of roasting meat arose. The hour was scarce yet dawn.
"Ordway! Gass! Pryor!" Lewis called in the sergeants in charge of the three messes. "The boy Shannon has not returned. Which of your men, Ordway, will best serve to find Shannon and meet us up the river?"
"Myself, sir," said Ordway, "if you please."
"No, 'tis meself, sor," interrupted Patrick Gass.
Pryor, with hand outstretched, also claimed the honor of the difficult undertaking.
"You three are needed in the boats," said the leader. "No, I think it will be better to send Drouillard and the two Fields boys. But tell me, Sergeant Ordway----"
"Yes, sir!"
"Has any boat passed up the river within the last day--for instance, while we were away at the hunt?"
"I think not, sir. Surely any one coming up the river would have turned in at our camp."
Lewis turned to Gass, to Pryor; but both agreed that no boat could have gone by unnoticed.
"And no man has come into the camp from below--no horseman?"
They all shook their heads. Their leader looked from one to the other keenly, trying to see if anything was concealed from him; but the honest faces of his men showed no suspicion of his own doubts.
He dismissed them, feeling it beneath his dignity to make inquiry as to the bearer of the mysterious letter; nor did he mention it again to William Clark. He knew only that some one of his men had a secret from his commander.
"The men will find Shannon and bring him in ahead--we can't afford to wait here for them. The water is falling now," said Clark. "We are doing our twenty miles daily. The men laugh on the line, for the bars are exposed, and they can track along shore easily. Suppose Shannon were out three days--that would make it sixty miles upstream--or less, for him, for he could cut the bends. I make no doubt that when he found himself out for the night he started up the river; even before this time. En avant, Cruzatte!" he called. "You shall lead the line for the first draw. Make it lively for an hour! Sing some song, Cruzatte, if you can--some song of old Kaskaskia."
"Sure, the Frenchmans, she'll lead on the line this morning, Capitaine! I'll put nine, seven Frenchmans on the line, and she'll run on the bank on her bare feet two hour--one hour. This buffalo meat, she make Frenchmans strong like nothing!"