Biography & Autobiography
Read books online » Biography & Autobiography » The Magnificent Adventure by Emerson Hough (best books for 20 year olds .TXT) 📖

Book online «The Magnificent Adventure by Emerson Hough (best books for 20 year olds .TXT) đŸ“–Â». Author Emerson Hough



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 46
Go to page:


The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Magnificent Adventure, by Emerson Hough

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org


Title: The Magnificent Adventure
Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and
the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman

Author: Emerson Hough

Illustrator: Arthur I. Keller

Release Date: October 20, 2009 [EBook #30298]

Language: English


*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE ***




Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)






THE
MAGNIFICENT
ADVENTURE

Being the Story of the World’s
Greatest Exploration and the
Romance of a Very Gallant
Gentleman.

A NOVEL BY EMERSON HOUGH

AUTHOR OF

THE COVERED WAGON,
NORTH OF 36, ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR I. KELLER
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

Copyright, 1916, by
EMERSON HOUGH

Copyright, 1916, by The Frank A. Munsey Company

Printed in the United States of America

“‘Him Ro’shones,’ replied the girl” “‘Him Ro’shones,’ replied the girl” PAGE 219

]

TO ROBERT H. DAVIS GOOD FRIEND INVALUABLE COLLABORATOR CONTENTS
PART I CHAPTER   PAGE I. Mother and Son 3 II. Meriwether and Theodosia 15 III. Mr. Burr and Mr. Merry 30 IV. President and Secretary 36 V. The Pell-Mell and Some Consequences 47 VI. The Great Conspiracy 71 VII. Colonel Burr and His Daughter 86 VIII. The Parting 94 IX. Mr. Thomas Jefferson 105 X. The Threshold of the West 117 XI. The Taming of Patrick Gass 128 XII. Captain William Clark 137 XIII. Under Three Flags 143 XIV. The Rent in the Armor 153 PART II I. Under One Flag 167 II. The Mysterious Letter 182 III. The Day’s Work 191 IV. The Crossroads of the West 199 V. The Appeal 208 VI. Which Way? 218 VII. The Mountains 230 VIII. Trail’s End 241 IX. The Summons 250 X. The Abyss 256 XI. The Bee 272 XII. What Voice Had Called? 280 XIII. The News 292 XIV. The Guests of a Nation 300 XV. Mr. Jefferson’s Advice 308 XVI. The Quality of Mercy 316 XVII. The Friends 328 XVIII. The Wilderness 336 XIX. Down to the Sea 351 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
“‘Him Ro’shones,’ replied the girl” Frontispiece FACING PAGE “‘Mistah Thomas Jeffahson!’ was his sole announcement” 50 “‘Oh, Theo, what have I done?’” 162 “Her face indeed!” 252 THE
MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE

CHAPTER I MOTHER AND SON

A woman, tall, somewhat angular, dark of hair and eye, strong of features—a woman now approaching middle age—sat looking out over the long, tree-clad slopes that ran down from the gallery front of the mansion house to the gate at the distant roadway. She had sat thus for some moments, many moments, her gaze intently fixed, as though waiting for something—something or someone that she did not now see, but expected soon to see.

It was late afternoon of a day so beautiful that not even old Albemarle, beauty spot of Virginia, ever produced one more beautiful—not in the hundred years preceding that day, nor in the century since then. For this was more than a hundred years ago; and what is now an ancient land was then a half opened region, settled only here and there by the great plantations of the well-to-do. The house that lay at the summit of the long and gentle slope, flanked by its wide galleries—its flung doors opening it from front to rear to the gaze as one approached—had all the rude comfort and assuredness usual with the gentry of that time and place.

It was the privilege, and the habit, of the Widow Lewis to sit idly when she liked, but her attitude now was not that of idleness. Intentness, reposeful acceptance of life, rather, showed in her motionless, long-sustained position. She was patient, as women are; but her strong pose, its freedom from material support, her restrained power to do or to endure, gave her the look of owning something more than resignation, something more than patience. A strong figure of a woman, one would have said had one seen her, sitting on the gallery of her old home a hundred and twenty-four years ago.

The Widow Lewis stared straight down at the gate, a quarter of a mile away, with yearning in her gaze. But as so often happens, what she awaited did not appear at the time and place she herself had set. There fell at the western end of the gallery a shadow—a tall shadow, but she did not see it. She did not hear the footfall, not stealthy, but quite silent, with which the tall owner of the shadow came toward her from the gallery end.

It was a young man, or rather boy, no more than eighteen years of age, who stood now and gazed at her after his silent approach, so like that of an Indian savage. Half savage himself he seemed now, as he stood, clad in the buckskin garments of the chase, then not unusual in the Virginian borderlands among settlers and hunters, and not held outré among a people so often called to the chase or to war.

His tunic was of dressed deer hide, his well-fitting leggings also of that material. His feet were covered with moccasins, although his hat and the neat scarf at his neck were those of a gentleman. He was a practical youth, one would have said, for no ornament of any sort was to be seen upon his garb. In his hand he carried a long rifle of the sort then used thereabout. At his belt swung the hide of a raccoon, the bodies of a few squirrels.

Had you been a close observer, you would have found each squirrel shot fair through the head. Indeed, a look into the gray eye of the silent-paced youth would have assured you in advance of his skill with his weapons—you would have known that to be natural with him.

You would not soon have found his like, even in that land of tall hunting men. He was a grand young being as he stood there, straight and clean-limbed; hard-bitten of muscle, albeit so young; powerful and graceful in his stride. The beauty of youth was his, and of a strong heredity—that you might have seen.

The years of youth were his, yes; but the lightness of youth did not rest on his brow. While he was not yet eighteen, the gravity of manhood was his.

He did not smile now, as he saw his mother sitting there absorbed, gazing out for his return, and not seeing him now that he had returned. Instead, he stepped forward, and quietly laid a hand upon her shoulder, not with any attempt to surprise or startle her, but as if he knew that she would accept it as the announcement of his presence.

He was right. The strong figure in the chair did not start away. No exclamation came from the straight mouth of the face now turned toward him. Evidently the nerves of these two were not of the sort readily stampeded.

The young man’s mother at first did not speak to him. She only reached up her own hand to take that which lay upon her shoulder. They remained thus for a moment, until at last the youth stepped back to lean his rifle against the wall.

“I am late, mother,” said he at length, as he turned and, seating himself at her feet, threw his arm across her lap—himself but boy again now, and not the hunter and the man.

She stroked his dark hair, not foolishly fond, but with a sort of stern maternal care, smoothing it back in place where it belonged, straightening out the riot it had assumed. It made a mane above his forehead and reached down his neck to his shoulders, so heavy that where its dark mass was lifted it showed the skin of his neck white beneath.

“You are late, yes.”

“And you waited—so long?”

“I am always waiting for you, Merne,” said she. She used the Elizabethan vowel, as one should pronounce “bird,” with no sound of “u”—“Mairne,” the name sounded as she spoke it. And her voice was full and rich and strong, as was her son’s; musically strong.

“I am always waiting for you, Merne,” said she. “But I long ago learned not to expect anything else of you.” She spoke with not the least reproach in her tone. “No, I only knew that you would come back in time, because you told me that you would.”

“And you did not fear for me, then—gone overnight in the woods?” He half smiled at that thought himself.

“You know I would not. I know you, what you are—born woodsman. No, I trust you to care for yourself in any wild country, my son, and to come back. And then—to go back again into the forest. When will it be, my son? Tomorrow? In two days, or four, or six? Sometime you will go to the wilderness again. It draws you, does it not?”

She turned her head slightly toward the west, where lay the forest from which the boy had but now emerged. He did not smile, did not deprecate. He was singularly mature in his actions, though but eighteen years of age.

“I did not desert my duty, mother,” said he at length.

“Oh, no, you would not do that, Merne!” returned the widow.

“Please, mother,” said he suddenly, “I want you to call me by my full name—that of your people. Am I not Meriwether, too?”

The hand on his forehead ceased its gentle movement, fell to its owner’s lap. A sigh passed his mother’s set lips.

“Yes, my son, Meriwether,” said she. “This is the last journey! I have lost you, then, it seems? You do not wish to be my boy any longer? You are a man altogether, then?”

“I am Meriwether Lewis, mother,” said he gravely, and no more.

“Yes!” She spoke absently, musingly. “Yes, you always were!”

“I went westward, clear across the Ragged Mountains,” said the youth. “These”—and he pointed with contempt to the small trophies at his belt—“will do for the darkies at the stables. I put yon old ringtail up a tree last night, on my way home, and thought it was as well to wait till dawn, till I could see the rifle-sights; and afterward—the woods were beautiful today. As to the trails, even if there is no trail, I know the way back home—you know that, mother.”

“I know that, my son, yes. You were born for the forest. I fear I shall not hold you long on this quiet farm.”

“All in time, mother! I

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 46
Go to page:

Free ebook «The Magnificent Adventure by Emerson Hough (best books for 20 year olds .TXT) đŸ“–Â» - read online now

Comments (0)

There are no comments yet. You can be the first!
Add a comment