William Clark, silent, stood once more at the side of his friend. He looked on the sad and haggard face which was turned toward him, and fell back. His eye caught sight of the folded paper crushed between Lewis"s fingers. He asked no questions, but he knew.
"Enough!" broke out Meriwether Lewis hoa.r.s.ely. "No more of this--we must be gone! Are the men ready? Why do we delay? Why are we not away for the journey home?"
So impatient, so incoherent, did his speech seem that for a time Clark almost feared lest his friend"s reason might have been affected. But he only stood looking at Lewis, ready to be of such aid as might be.
"In two hours, Merne," said he, "we will be on our way."
It was now near the end of March. They dated and posted up their bulletins. They had done their task. They had found the great river, they had found the sea, they had mapped the way across the new continent. Their glorious work had gloriously been done.
Such was their joy at starting home again, the boatmen disregarded the down-coming current of the great waters--they sang at the paddles, jested. Only their leader was silent and unsmiling, and he drove them hard. Short commons they knew often enough before they reached the mouth of the Walla Walla, where they found friendly Indians who gave them horse meat--which seemed exceedingly good food.
The Nez Perces, whose country was reached next beyond the Walla Wallas, offered guides across the Bitter Roots, but now the snow lay deep, the horses could not travel. For weeks they lay in camp on the Kooskooskie, eating horse meat as the Indians then were doing, waiting, fretting.
It was the middle of June before they made the effort to pa.s.s the Bitter Roots. Sixty horses they had now, with abundance of jerked horse meat, and a half-dozen Nez Perces guides. By the third of July--just three years from the date of the Louisiana Purchase as it was made known at Mr. Jefferson"s simplicity dinner--they were across the Bitter Roots once more, in the pleasant valleys of the eastern slope.
"That way," said Sacajawea, pointing, "big falls!"
She meant the short cut across the string of the bow, which would lead over the Continental Divide direct to the Great Falls of the Missouri.
Both the leaders had pondered over this short cut, which the Nez Perces knew well.
"We must part, Will," said Meriwether Lewis. "It is our duty to learn all we can of this wonderful country. I will take the Indian trail straight across. Do you go on down the way we came. Pick up our caches above the three forks of the Missouri, and then cross over the mountains to the Yellowstone. Make boats there, and come on down to the mouth of that river. You should precede me there, perhaps, by some days. Wait then until I come."
With little more ado these self-reliant men parted in the middle of the vast mountain wilderness. They planned a later junction of their two parties at the mouth of a river which then was less known than the Columbia had been, through a pa.s.s which none of them had ever seen.
Lewis had with him nine men, among them Sergeant Ga.s.s, the two Fields boys, Drouillard and Cruzatte, the voyageurs. Sacajawea, in spite of her protest, remained with the Clark party, where her wonderful knowledge of the country again proved invaluable. This band advanced directly to the southward by easy and pleasant daily stages.
"That way short path over mountains," said Sacajawea at length, at one point of their journey.
She pointed out the Big Hole Trail and what was later known as Clark"s Pa.s.s over the Continental Divide. They came to a new country, a beautiful valley where the gra.s.s was good; but Sacajawea still pointed onward.
"That way," said she, "find boat, find cache!"
She showed them another gap in the hills, as yet unknown; and so led them out by a short cut directly to the caches on the Jefferson!
But they could not tarry long. Boots and saddles again, pole and paddle also, for now some of the men must take to the boats while others brought on the horses. At the Three Forks rendezvous they made yet other changes, for here the boats must be left. Captain Clark must cross the mountain range to the eastward to find the Yellowstone, of which the Indian girl had told him. Yonder, she said, not quite a full day"s march through a notch in the lofty mountains, they would come to the river, which ran off to the east.
Not one of them had ever heard of that gap in the hills; there was no one to guide them through it except the Indian girl, whose memory had hitherto been so positive and so trustworthy. They trusted her implicitly.
"That way!" she said.
Always she pointed on ahead confidently; and always she was right. She was laying out the course of a railroad which one day should come up the Yellowstone and cross here to the Missouri.
They found it to be no more than eighteen or twenty miles, Sacajawea"s extraordinary short cut between the Missouri and the Yellowstone. They struck the latter river below the mouth of its great canon, found good timber, and soon were busy felling great cottonwoods to make dugout canoes. Two of these, some thirty feet in length, when lashed side by side, served to carry all their goods and some of their party. The rest--Pryor, Shannon, Hall and one or two others--were to come on down with the horses.
The mounted men did well enough until one night the Crows stole all their horses, and left them on foot in the middle of the wilderness.
Not daunted, they built themselves boats of bull hide, as they had seen Indians do, and soon they followed on down the river, they could not tell how far, to the rear of the main boat party. With the marvelous good fortune which attended the entire expedition, they had no accident; and in time they met the other explorers at the mouth of the Yellowstone, after traveling nine hundred miles on a separate voyage of original discovery!
It was on the eighth of August that the last of Clark"s boats arrived at the Yellowstone rendezvous. His men felt now as if they were almost at home. The Mandan villages were not far below. As soon as Captain Lewis should come, they would be on their way, rejoicing. Patient, hardy, uncomplaining, they did not know that they were heroes.
What of Lewis, then gone so long? He and his men were engaged in the yet more dangerous undertaking of exploring the country of the dreaded Blackfeet, known to bear arms obtained from the northern traders. They reached the portage of the Great Falls without difficulty, and eagerly examined the caches which they had left there. Now they were to divide their party.
"Sergeant Ga.s.s," said Captain Lewis, "I am going to leave you here.
You will get the baggage and the boats below the falls, and take pa.s.sage on down the river. Six of you can attend to that. I shall take Drouillard and the Fields boys with me, and strike off toward the north and east, where I fancy I shall find the upper portion of Maria"s River. When you come to the mouth of that river--which you will remember some of you held to be the real Missouri--you will go into camp and wait for us. You will remain there until the first day of September. If by that time we have not returned, you will pa.s.s on down the Missouri to Captain Clark"s camp, at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and go home with him. By that time it will have become evident that we shall not return. I plan to meet you at the mouth of Maria"s River somewhere about the beginning of August."
They parted, and it was almost by a miracle that they ever met again; for now the perils of the wilderness a.s.serted themselves even against the marvelous good fortune which had thus far attended them.
Hitherto, practically all the tribes met had been friendly, but now they were in the country of the dreaded Blackfeet, who by instinct and training were hostile to all whites coming in from the south and east.
A party of these warriors was met on the second day of their northbound journey from the Missouri River. Lewis gave the Indians such presents as he could, and, as was his custom, told them of his purpose in traveling through the country. He showed no fear of them, although he saw his own men outnumbered ten to one. The two parties, the little band of white men and the far more numerous band of Blackfeet, lay down to sleep that night in company.
But the Blackfeet were unable to resist the temptation to attain sudden wealth by seizing the horses and guns of these strangers.
Toward dawn Lewis himself, confident in the integrity of his guests, and dozing for a time, felt the corner of his robe pulled, felt something spring on his face, heard a noise. His little dog was barking loudly, excitedly.
He was more fully awakened by the sound of a shout, and then by a shot. Springing from his robes, he saw Drouillard and both of the Fields boys on their feet, struggling with the savages, who were trying to wrench their rifles from them.
"Curse you, turn loose of me!" cried Reuben Fields.
He fought for a time longer with his brawny antagonist, till he saw others coming. Then his hand went to the long knife at his belt, and the next instant the Blackfoot lay dead at his feet.
Drouillard wrenched his rifle free and stood off his man for a moment, shouting all the time to his leader that the Indians were trying to get the horses. Lewis saw the thieves tugging at the picket-ropes, and hastened into the fray, cursing himself for his own credulity. A giant Blackfoot engaged him, bull-hide shield advanced, battle-ax whirling; but wresting himself free, Lewis fired point-blank into his body, and another Indian fell dead.
The Blackfeet found they had met their match. They dropped the picket-ropes and ran as fast as they could, jumped into the river, swam across, and so escaped, leaving the little party of whites unhurt, but much disturbed.
"Mount, men! Hurry!" Lewis ordered.
As quickly as they could master the frightened horses, his men obeyed.
With all thought of further exploration ended, they set out at top speed, and rode all that day and night as fast as the horses could travel. They had made probably one hundred and twenty miles when at length they came to the mouth of the Maria"s River, escaped from the most perilous adventure any of them had had.
Here again, by that strange good fortune which seemed to guide them, they arrived just in time to see the canoes of Ga.s.s and his men coming down the Missouri. These latter had made the grand portage at the falls, had taken up all the caches, and had brought the contents with them. The stars still fought for the Volunteers for the Discovery of the West.
There was no time to wait. The Blackfeet would be coming soon. Lewis abandoned his horses here. The entire party took to the boats, and hurried down the river as fast as they could, paddling in relays, day and night. Gaunt, eager, restless, moody, silent, their leader neither urged his men nor chided them, nor did he refer to the encounter with the Blackfeet. He did not need to, with Drouillard to describe it to them all a dozen times.
At times it was necessary for the boats to stop for meat, usually a short errand in a country alive with game; and, as was his custom, Lewis stepped ash.o.r.e one evening to try for a shot at some near by game--elk, buffalo, antelope, whatever offered. He had with him Cruzatte, the one-eyed Frenchman. It was now that fortune frowned ominously almost for the first time.
The two had not been gone more than a few minutes when the men remaining at the boat heard a shot--then a cry, and more shouting.
Cruzatte came running back to them through the bushes, calling out at the top of his voice:
"The captain! I"ve keeled him--I"ve keeled the captain--I"ve shot him!"
"What is that you"re saying?" demanded Patrick Ga.s.s. "If you"ve done that, you would be better dead yourself!"
He reached out, caught Cruzatte"s rifle, and flung it away from him.
"Where is he?" he demanded.
Cruzatte led the way back.
"I see something move on the bushes," said he, "and I shoot. It was not elk--it was the captain. _Mon Dieu_, what shall we do?"
They found Captain Lewis sitting up, propped against a clump of willows, his legging stripped to the thigh. He was critically examining the path of the bullet, which had pa.s.sed through the limb.