And so that matter was completed. Strangely enough, as the future proved, were the fortunes of these two to intermingle. From the first, Shannon attached himself to his captain almost in the capacity of personal attendant.
At last the great bateau lay ready, launched from the docks and moored alongside the wharf. Fifty feet long it was, with mast, tholes and walking-boards for the arduous upstream work. It had received a part of its cargo, and soon all was in readiness to start.
On the evening of that day Lewis sat down to pen a last letter to his chief. He wrote in the little office-room of the inn where he was stopping, and for a time he did not note the presence of young Shannon, who stood, as usual, silent until his leader might address him.
“What, is it, George?” he asked at length, looking up.
“Someone waiting to see you, sir—they are in the parlor. They sent me——”
“They? Who are they?”
“I don’t know, sir. She asked me to come for you.”
“She. Who is she?”
“I don’t know, sir. She spoke to her father. They are in the room just across the hall, sir.”