he sands are running. This was a cursed check, this
illness at Fontenoy. But for it I should be now upon the Ohio." He left
the table and began to pace the room, his hands clasped behind him. "Two
weeks from here to this island--then eight weeks for that twelve
hundred miles of river, and to gather men from New Madrid and Baton
Rouge and Bayou Pierre. October, November, December. Say New Orleans by
the New Year. There will be some seizing there,--the banks, the
shipping. If the army joins us, all will be well. But there, Tom, there!
there is the 'if' in this project!"

"But you are sure of General Wilkinson!"

Rand paused to take a letter from his pocket. "Burr is. I have this
to-day from him in cipher. Listen!" He unfolded the paper, brought it
into the firelight, and began to read in a clear, low voice. "Burr has
written to Wilkinson in substance as follows: Funds are obtained and
operations commenced. The eastern detachment will rendezvous on the Ohio
the first of November. Everything internal and external favours our
views. The naval protection of England is secured. Final orders are
given to my friends and followers. It will be a host of choice spirits.
Burr proceeds westward never to return. With him go his daughter and
grandson. Our project, my dear friend, is brought to a point so long
desired. Burr guarantees the result with his life and honour, with the
lives and honour and fortune of hundreds, the best blood of our country.
Burr's plan of operation is to move down rapidly from the falls on the
fifteenth of November, with the first five hundred or one thousand men,
in light boats, now constructing for that purpose, to be at Natchez
between the fifth and fifteenth of December, there to meet Wilkinson,
there to determine whether it will be expedient in the first instance to
seize on, or pass by, Baton Rouge. The people of the country to which we
are going are prepared to receive us; their agents, now with Burr, say
that if we will protect their religion, and will not subject them to a
foreign power, then in three weeks all will be settled. The gods invite
us to glory and fortune; it remains to be seen whether we deserve the
boon.'"

Rand ceased to read and refolded the paper. "So Colonel Burr, with more
to the same effect. If he writes thus to General Wilkinson, he is
undoubtedly very sure of that gentleman and of the army which he
commands. I am not of as confident a temper, and I am sure of no one
save Lewi