tual offering, any puzzle, any study, any intrigue--she comes at
midnight to talk with me, whom she knows to be the representative of yet
a third power!"

"And finds you in your red nightcap!" I laughed.

"Did she speak of that?" asked Mr. Calhoun in consternation, raising a
hand to his head. "It may be that I forgot--but none the less, she came!

"Yes, as I said, she came, by virtue of your long legs and your ready
way, as I must admit; and you were saved from her only, as I
believe--Why, God bless Elisabeth Churchill, my boy, that is all! But my
faith, how nicely it all begins to work out!"

"I do not share your enthusiasm, Mr. Calhoun," said I bitterly. "On the
contrary, it seems to me to work out in as bad a fashion as could
possibly be contrived."

"In due time you will see many things more plainly. Meantime, be sure
England will be careful. She will make no overt movement, I should say,
until she has heard from Oregon; which will not be before my lady
baroness shall have returned and reported to Mr. Pakenham here. All of
which means more time for us."

I began to see something of the structure of bold enterprise which this
man deliberately was planning; but no comment offered itself; so that
presently, he went on, as though in soliloquy.

"The Hudson Bay Company have deceived England splendidly enough. Doctor
McLaughlin, good man that he is, has not suited the Hudson Bay Company.
His removal means less courtesy to our settlers in Oregon. Granted a
less tactful leader than himself, there will be friction with our
high-strung frontiersmen in that country. No man can tell when the thing
will come to an issue. For my own part, I would agree with Polk that we
ought to own that country to fifty-four forty--but what we _ought_ to do
and what we can do are two separate matters. Should we force the issue
now and lose, we would lose for a hundred years. Should we advance
firmly and hold firmly what we gain, in perhaps less than one hundred
years we may win _all_ of that country, as I just said to Mr. Polk, to
the River Saskatchewan--I know not where! In my own soul, I believe no
man may set a limit to the growth of the idea of an honest government by
the people. _And this continent is meant for that honest government!_"

"We have already a Monroe Doctrine, Mr. Calhoun," said I. "What you
enunciate now is yet more startling. Shall we call it the Calhoun
Doctrine?"

He made no answer, but arose and paced up and down