“That will do, Gass. Go forward and find Shannon, and the two of you tend to Floyd.” Patrick saluted and trudged away. Captain Lewis continued, to Captain Clark: “There’s something back of this, Will. Gass is too willing. I’ll wager he and Shannon know more than we do.”
“Oh, it’s the Irish in him, Merne. Do you think they smuggled the lad aboard?”
“If they did——who brought you on this boat?” demanded the Long Knife Chief of Peter.
Peter shrugged his shoulders.
“I come,” he said.
“Why?”
“Go with ’Nited States. Up big river.”
“Who taught you to speak English?”
“My—mother,” stammered Peter. “No English; ’Merican; Ken-tuck-y.”
“Kentuckian!” blurted Captain Clark. “He is white, sure enough. That comes pretty close to home-folks, Merne. I know some Kerrs there, myself.”