he picked out a man here and a man there to go
with Saunders. Then his eye lighted on me. "Where's McChesney?" he
said. "Fetch McChesney."

I ran to get Tom, and seven of them went away, with Saunders in the
middle, Clark watching them like a hawk, while the men sat down in the
grass to wait. Fifteen minutes went by, and twenty, and twenty-five, and
Clark was calling for a rope, when some one caught sight of the squad in
the distance returning at a run. And when they came within hail it was
Saunders' voice we heard, shouting brokenly:--

"I've struck it, Colonel, I've struck the trace. There's a pecan at the
edge of the bottom with my own blaze on it."

"May you never be as near death again," said the Colonel, grimly, as he
gave the order to march.

The fourth day passed, and we left behind us the patches of forest and
came into the open prairie,--as far as the eye could reach a long, level
sea of waving green. The scanty provisions ran out, hunger was added to
the pangs of thirst and weariness, and here and there in the straggling
file discontent smouldered and angry undertone was heard. Kaskaskia was
somewhere to the west and north; but how far? Clark had misled them.
And in addition it were foolish to believe that the garrison had not been
warned. English soldiers and French militia and Indian allies stood
ready for our reception. Of such was the talk as we lay down in the
grass under the stars on the fifth night. For in the rank and file an
empty stomach is not hopeful.

The next morning we took up our march silently with the dawn, the prairie
grouse whirring ahead of us. At last, as afternoon drew on, a dark line
of green edged the prairie to the westward, and our spirits rose. From
mouth to mouth ran the word that these were the woods which fringed the
bluff above Kaskaskia itself. We pressed ahead, and the destiny of the
new Republic for which we had fought made us walk unseen. Excitement
keyed us high; we reached the shade, plunged into it, and presently came
out staring at the bastioned corners of a fort which rose from the centre
of a clearing. It had once defended the place, but now stood abandoned
and dismantled. Beyond it, at the edge of the bluff, we halted,
astonished. The sun was falling in the west, and below us was the goal
for the sight of which we had suffered so much. At our feet, across the
wooded bottom, was the Kaskaskia River, and beyond, the peaceful little
French village with its low hous