ve I done?'"]

"Yes!" so said the voice in his ear. "Why should the spring grudge a
draft to a soul aflame with an undying thirst? Vows? What have vows to
do with this? Duty? What is duty to a man perishing?--I know not what
it was. I heard it. I felt it. Forgive me, it was not I myself! Oh,
Theo, what have I done?"

She could not speak, could not even sob. Neither horror nor resentment
was possible for her, nor any protest, save the tears which welled
silently, terribly.

Unable longer to endure this, Meriwether Lewis turned to leave behind
him his last hope of happiness, and to face alone what he now felt to
be the impenetrable night of his own destiny. He never knew when his
hands fell from Theodosia Alston's face, or when he turned away; but
at last he felt himself walking, forcing his head upright, his face
forward.

He passed, a tall, proud man in his half-savage trappings--a man in
full ownership of splendid physical powers; but as he walked his feet
were lead, his heart was worse than lead. And though his face was
turned away from her, he knew that always he would see what he had
left--this picture of Theodosia weeping--this picture of a saint
mocked, of an altar desecrated. She wept, and it was because of him!

The dumb cry of his remorse, his despair, must have struck back to
where she still stood, her hands on her bosom, staring at him as he
passed:

"Theo! Theo! What have I done? What have I done?"

PART II

CHAPTER I

UNDER ONE FLAG

What do you bring, oh, mighty river--and what tidings do you carry
from the great mountains yonder in the unknown lands? In what region
grew this great pine which swims with you to the sea? What fat lands
reared this heavy trunk, which sinks at last, to be buried in the
sands?

What jewels lie under your flood? What rich minerals float impalpably
in your tawny waters? Across what wide prairies did you come--among
what hills--through what vast forests? How long, great river, was your
journey, sufficient to afford so tremendous a gathering of the waters?

A hundred years ago the great Missouri made no answer to these
questions. It was open highway only for those who dared. The man who
asked its secrets must read them for himself. What a time and place
for adventure! What a time and place for men!

From sea to sea, across an unknown, fabled mountain range, lay our
wilderness, now swiftly trebled by a miracle in statecraft. The flag
which floated ov