hey are
waiting for me at the wharf now, and I must go. All bridges are burned
behind me!"

"_All bridges burned?_"

The deep voice of Aaron Burr almost trembled. His keen eye searched
the face of the young man before him.

"Every one," replied the young Virginian. "I do not know how or when I
may return. Perhaps Mr. Clark or myself may come back by sea--should
we ever reach the sea. We can only trust to Providence."

He was bowing and extending his own hand in farewell, with polite
excuses as to his haste--relieved that his last ordeal had been spared
him. He turned, as he felt rather than heard the approach of another,
whose coming caused his heart almost to stop beating--the woman
dreaded and demanded by every fiber of his being.

"Oh, not so fast, not so fast!" laughed Theodosia Alston as she came
into the room, offering her hand. "I heard you talking, and have been
hurrying to pretty myself up for Captain Lewis. What? Were you trying
to run away without ever saying good-by to me? And how you are
prettied up!"

Her gaze, following her light speech, resolved itself into one of
admiration. Theodosia Alston, as she looked, found him a goodly
picture as he stood ready for the trail.

"I was just going, yes," stammered Meriwether Lewis. "I had hoped----"
But what he had hoped he did not say.

"Why might we not walk down with you to the wharf, if you are so soon
to go?" she demanded--her own self-control concealing any
disappointment she may have felt at her cavalier reception.

"An excellent idea!" said Aaron Burr, backing his daughter's hand, and
trusting to her to have some plan. "A warrior must spend his last word
with some woman, captain! Go you on ahead--I surrender my daughter to
you, and I shall follow presently to bid you a last Godspeed. You said
those other gentlemen were to join you there?"

Meriwether Lewis found himself walking down the narrow street of the
frontier settlement between the lines of hollyhocks and budding roses
which fronted many of the little residences. It was spring, the air
was soft. He was young. The woman at his side was very beautiful. So
far as he could see they were alone.

They passed along the street, turned, made their way down the
rock-faced bluff to the water front; but still they were alone. All
St. Louis was at the farther end of the wharf, waiting for a last look
at the idol of the town.

Theodosia sighed.

"And so Captain Lewis is going to have his way as us