"All bridges burned?"
The deep voice of Aaron Burr almost trembled. His keen eye searched the face of the young man before him.
"Every one," replied the young Virginian. "I do not know how or when I may return. Perhaps Mr. Clark or myself may come back by sea--should we ever reach the sea. We can only trust to Providence."
He was bowing and extending his own hand in farewell, with polite excuses as to his haste--relieved that his last ordeal had been spared him. He turned, as he felt rather than heard the approach of another, whose coming caused his heart almost to stop beating--the woman dreaded and demanded by every fiber of his being.
"Oh, not so fast, not so fast!" laughed Theodosia Alston as she came into the room, offering her hand. "I heard you talking, and have been hurrying to pretty myself up for Captain Lewis. What? Were you trying to run away without ever saying good-by to me? And how you are prettied up!"
Her gaze, following her light speech, resolved itself into one of admiration. Theodosia Alston, as she looked, found him a goodly picture as he stood ready for the trail.
"I was just going, yes," stammered Meriwether Lewis. "I had hoped----" But what he had hoped he did not say.
"Why might we not walk down with you to the wharf, if you are so soon to go?" she demanded--her own self-control concealing any disappointment she may have felt at her cavalier reception.
"An excellent idea!" said Aaron Burr, backing his daughter's hand, and trusting to her to have some plan. "A warrior must spend his last word with some woman, captain! Go you on ahead--I surrender my daughter to you, and I shall follow presently to bid you a last Godspeed. You said those other gentlemen were to join you there?"
Meriwether Lewis found himself walking down the narrow street of the frontier settlement between the lines of hollyhocks and budding roses which fronted many of the little residences. It was spring, the air was soft. He was young. The woman at his side was very beautiful. So far as he could see they were alone.
They passed along the street, turned, made their way down the rock-faced bluff to the water front; but still they were alone. All St. Louis was at the farther end of the wharf, waiting for a last look at the idol of the town.
Theodosia sighed.
"And so Captain Lewis is going to have his way as usual? And he was going--in spite of all--even without saying good-by to me!"
"Yes, I would have preferred that."