“That young man, Colonel Burr, will go through! I know his kind. Believe me, if I know men, he is a strong man. Let that man come back from his expedition with the map of a million square miles of new American territory hanging at his belt, like a scalp torn from his foes—and there will be no chance left for Colonel Burr and his friends!”
“All that your excellency has said tallies entirely with our own beliefs,” rejoined Burr. “But what then? What is the condition?”
“Simply this—we must have Captain Lewis with us and not against us. I want that man! I must have him. That expedition must never proceed. It must be delayed, stopped. Money was raised twenty years ago in London to make this same sort of journey across the continent, but the plan fell through. Revive it now, and we English still may pull it off. But it will be too late if Captain Lewis goes forward now—too late for us—too late for you and your plan, Mr. Burr. I want that man! We must have him with us!”
Burr sat in silence for a time.
“You open up a singular train of thought for me, your excellency,” said he at length. “He does belong with us, that young Virginian!”
“You know him, then?” inquired the British minister. “That is to say, you know him well?”
“Perfectly. Why should I not? He nearly was my son-in-law. Egad! Give him two weeks more, and he might have been—he got the news of my daughter’s marriage just too late. It hit him hard. In truth, I doubt if he ever has recovered from it. They say he still takes it hard. Now, you ask me how to get that man, your excellency. There is perhaps one way in which it could be accomplished, and only one.”
“How, then?” inquired Merry.
“The way of a woman with a man may always be the answer in matters of that sort!” said Aaron Burr.