"They waited until it was too late, yes," Lewis returned. "That country is American now, not British or Spanish or French. Our men are passing across the river in thousands. They will never loose their hold on the West. It was treason to the future that you planned--but it was hopeless from the first!"
"It would seem, sir," said Aaron Burr, a cynical smile twisting his thin lip, "that I may not count upon your friendship!"
"That is a hard speech, Colonel Burr. I was your friend."
"More than your chief ever was! I fancy Mr. Jefferson would like to see me pilloried, drawn and quartered, after the old way."
"You are unjust to him. You struck at the greatest ambition of his life--struck at his heart and the heart of his country--when you undertook to separate the West from this republic."
"I am a plain man, and a busy man," said Aaron Burr coldly. "I must employ my time now to the betterment of my situation. I have failed, and you have won. But let me throw the cloak aside, since I know you can be of no service to me. I care not what punishment you may have--what suffering--because I recognize in you the one great cause of my failure. It was you, sir, with your cursed expedition, that defeated Aaron Burr!"
He turned, proud and defiant even in his failure, and when Meriwether Lewis looked up he was gone.
Even as Burr passed, Meriwether Lewis heard a light step in the long corridor. Under guard of the turnkey, some one stood at the door. It was the figure of a woman--a figure which caused him to halt, caused his heart to leap!
She came toward him now, all in mourning black--hat, gown, and gloves. Her face was pale, her eyes deep, her mouth drooping. Theodosia Alston was always thus on her daily visit to her father's cell.
Herself the picture of failure and despair, she was used to avoiding the eyes of all; but she saw Meriwether Lewis standing before her, strong, tall, splendid in his manhood and vigor, in the full tide of his success. She was almost in touch of his hand when she raised her eyes to his.
These two had met at last, after what far wanderings apart! They had met as if each came from the Valley of the Shadows. Out of the vastness of the unknown, over all those long and devious trails, into what now seemed to him a world still more vast, more fraught with desperate peril, he had come back to her. And she--what had been her perils? What were her thoughts?