eral had passed us in his barge far down the river, and had
arrived in St. Louis several days before us. To this was now added the
news that he had gone on up to Belle Fontaine.

Such an opportunity to meet the General and my friend together was not
to be lost. I made my plans over-night in St. Louis, stored my chest,
provided myself with a new hunter's suit, and obtained letters of
recommendation to the General from two gentlemen of influence.

Dawn found me at the convenient river front which gives St. Louis such
an advantage over the other up-river settlements of twice its size and
age. The rock bank not only prevents the incutting of the current, but,
owing to its lowness, gives easy access to and from the water, unlike
the high bluffs upon which most of the settlements have been located.

Looking about for an up-river party, I was so fortunate as to fall in
with Mr. Daniel Boone, who with his son-in-law, Flanders Calloway, had
come down from La Charette with a bateau-load of furs. Seeing me in
hunting dress, the old gentleman showed the keenest interest in my
intentions, and upon learning that my immediate purpose was to reach
Belle Fontaine, invited me aboard their bateau.

On the way upstream he made me sit beside him in the stern-sheets, and
his look betrayed such an eagerness over my plans that I could not
resist confiding them to him. It was sad to see the youthful fire flash
and sparkle in his bright old eyes, only to dull and fade to the
grayness of forced resignation.

"My days are past, John," he said, in his quiet, almost gentle voice.
"You have heard me tell of the trip I took with your father through the
Choctaw nation; but I'm now past my threescore years and ten, lad. Take
off the ten, and I'd be with you on this traceless quest to the Spanish
country. It's hard to be tied down to a scant fifty miles or so of free
range. But my old bones stiffen and call for rest after their
wanderings. I reckon, though, I've done a man's share in my time. Not
that I make any boast of it; only I feel that I was an instrument in
God's providence to open the wilderness to our people. I feel it none
the less that there were all those others before me. Captain Morgan
founded New Madrid in sixty-six--"

"But that was under Spanish rule," I exclaimed. "Yours was the first of
the advanced American settlements in Kentucky. If only I may have a
share in a like tracing of our great Western plains!"

He gave me a shrewd g