ies of some force.

It was a considerable cavalcade, therefore, which presently set forth
from Chickasaw Bluffs on the long ride eastward to cross the
Alleghanies, which meant some days or weeks spent in the saddle.
Apprehension sat upon all, even as they started out. Their eyes rested
upon the wasted form of their leader, the delirium of whose fever
seemed still to hold him. He muttered to himself as he rode, resented
the near approach of any traveling companion, demanded to be alone.
They looked at him in silence.

"He talks to himself all the time," said one of the party--a new man,
hired by Neely at the army post. He rode with Peria now; and none but
Peria knew that he had come from the long barge which had clung to the
Governor's craft all the way down the river--and which, unknown to
Lewis himself, had tied up and waited at Chickasaw Bluffs. He was a
stranger to Neely and to all the others, but seemed ready enough to
take pay for service along the Trace, declaring that he himself was
intending to go that way. He was a man well dressed, apparently of
education and of some means. He rode armed.

"What is wrong with the Governor, think you?" inquired this man once
more of Peria, Lewis's servant.

"It is his way," shrugged Peria. "We leave him alone. His hand is
heavy when he is angry."

"He rides always with his rifle across his saddle?"

"Always, on the trail."

"Loaded, I presume--and his pistols?"

"You may well suppose that," said Peria.

"Oh, well," said the new member of the party, "'tis just as well to be
safe. I lifted his saddlebags and the desk, or trunk, whatever you
call it, that is on the pack horse yonder. Heavy, eh?"

"Naturally," grinned Peria.

They looked at one another. And thereafter the two, as was well noted,
conversed often and more intimately together as the journey
progressed.

"Now it's an odd thing about his coat," volunteered the stranger later
in that same day. "He always keeps it on--that ragged old uniform. Was
it a uniform, do you believe? Can't the Governor of the new Territory
wear a coat that shows his own quality? This one's a dozen years old,
you might say."

"He always wears it on the trail," said Peria. "At home he watches it
as if it held some treasure."

"Treasure?" The shifty eyes of the new man flashed in sudden interest.
"What treasure? Papers, perhaps--bills--documents--money? His pocket
bulges at the side. Something there--yes, eh?"

"Hush!" said Peri