CHAPTER XI
THE TAMING OF PATRICK GASS
"Shannon, go get the men!"
It was midnight. For more than an hour Meriwether Lewis had sat, hishead drooped, in silence.
"We are going to start?" Shannon's face lightened eagerly. "We'll beoff at sunup?"
"Before that. Get the men--we'll start now! I'll meet you at thewharf."
Eager enough, Shannon hastened away on his midnight errand. Within anhour every man of the little party was at the water front, ready fordeparture. They found their leader walking up and down, his head bent,his hands behind him.
It was short work enough, the completion of such plans as remainedunfinished. The great keel-boat lay completed and equipped at thewharf. The men lost little time in stowing such casks and bales asremained unshipped. Shannon stepped to his chief.
"All's aboard, sir," said he. "Shall we cast off?"
Without a word Lewis nodded and made his way to his place in the boat.In the darkness, without a shout or a cheer to mark its passing, theexpedition was launched on its long journey.
Slowly the boat passed along the waterfront of Pittsburgh town. Hererose gauntly, in the glare of torch or camp fire, the mast of somehalf-built schooner. Houseboats were drawn up or anchored alongshore,long pirogues lay moored or beached, or now and again a giantbroadhorn, already partially loaded with household goods, commoncarrier for that human flood passing down the great waterway, stoodout blacker than the shadows in which it lay.
Here and there camp fires flickered, each the center of a ribald groupof the hardy rivermen. Through the night came sounds of roistering,songs, shouts. Arrested, pent, dammed up, the lusty life of that greatwaterway leading into the West and South scarce took time for sleep.
The boat slipped on down, now crossing a shaft of light flung on thewater from some lamp or fire, now blending with the ghostlike shadowswhich lay in the moonless night. It passed out of the town itself, andedged into the shade of the forest that swept continuously for so manyleagues on ahead.
"Hello, there!" called a voice through the darkness, after a time."Who goes there?"
The splash of a sweep had attracted the attention of someone on shore.The light of a camp fire showed.
Every one in the boat looked at the leader, but none vouchsafed areply to the hail.
"Ahoy there, the boat!" insisted the same voice.
"Shall I fire on yez to make yez answer a civil question? Come ashorewance--I can lick the best of yez in three minutes, or me name's notPatrick Gass!"
The captain of the boat turned slowly in his seat, casting a glanceover his silent crew.
"Set in!" said he, sharply and shortly.
Without a word they obeyed, and with oar and steering-sweep the greatcraft slowly swung inshore.
Lewis stepped from the boat, and, not waiting to see whether he wasfollowed--as he was by all of his men--strode on up the bank into thecircle of light made by the camp fire. About the fire lay a dozen ormore men of the hardest of the river type, which was saying quiteenough; for of all the lawless and desperate characters of thefrontier, none have ever surpassed in reckless audacity and truculencethe men of the old boat trade of the Ohio and the Mississippi.
These fellows lay idly looking at Lewis as he entered the light, nottroubling to accost him.
"Who hailed us?" demanded the latter shortly.
"Begorrah, 'twas me," said a short, strongly built man, steppingforward from the other side of the fire.
Clad in loose shirt and trousers, like most of his comrades, he showeda powerful man, a shock of reddish hair falling over his eyes, abull-like neck rising above his open shirt in such fashion that thesize of his shoulder muscles might easily be seen.
"'Twas me hailed yez, and what of it?"
"That is what I came ashore to learn," said Meriwether Lewis. "We areabout our business. What concern is that of yours? I am here tolearn."
"Yez can learn, if ye're so anxious," replied the other. "'Tis mehave got three drinks of Monongahaly in me that says I can whip you oranny man of your boat. And if that aint cause for ye to come ashore,'tis no fighting man ye are, an' I'll say that to your face!"
It was the accepted fashion of challenge known anywhere along twothousand miles of waterway at that time, in a country where physicalprowess and readiness to fight were the sole tests of distinction. Woeto the man who evaded such an issue, once it was offered to him!
The speaker had stepped close to Lewis--so close that the latter didnot need to advance a foot. Instead, he held his ground, and thechallenger, accepting this as a sign of willingness for battle, rushedat him, with the evident intent of a rough-and-tumble grapple afterthe fashion of his kind. To his surprise, he was held off by theleveled forearm of his opponent, rigid as a bar against his throat.
At this rebuff he roared like a bull, and breaking back rushed in oncemore, his giant arms flailing. Lewis swung back half a step, and then,so quickly that none saw the blow, but only its result was visible, heshifted on his feet, leaned into his thrust, and smote the joyouschallenger so fell a stroke in the throat as laid him quivering andhelpless. The brief fight was ended all too soon to suit the wishes ofthe spectators, used to more prolonged and bloodier encounters.
A sort of gasp, a half roar of surprise and anger, came from the groupupon the ground. Some of the party rose to their feet menacingly. Theymet the silent front of the boat party, the clicking of whosewell-oiled rifle-locks offered the most serious of warnings.
The sudden appearance of these visitors, so silent and soprompt--the swift act of their leader, without threat, withoutwarning--the instant readiness of the others to back their leader'sinitiative--caught every one of these rude fighting men in thesudden grip of surprise. They hesitated.
"I am no fighting man," said Meriwether Lewis, turning to them; "yetneither may I be insulted by any lout who chooses to call me ashore tothrash him. Do you think that an officer of the army has no betterbusiness than that? Who are you that would stop us?"
The group fell back muttering, lacking concerted action. What mighthave occurred in case they had reached their arms was prevented by theaction of the party of the first part in this _rencontre_--of thesecond part, perhaps, he might better have been called. The fallenwarrior sat up, rubbing his throat; he struggled to his knees, and atlength stood. There was something of rude river chivalry about him,after all.
"An officer, did ye say?" said he. "Oh, wirra! What have I done now,and me a soldier! But ye done it fair! And ye niver wance gouged menor jumped on me whin I was down! Begorrah, I felt both me eyes to seeif they was in! Ye done it fair, and ye're an officer and a gintleman,whoever ye be. I'd like to shake hands with ye!"
"I am not shaking hands with ruffians who insult travelers," CaptainLewis sternly rejoined; but he saw the crestfallen look which sweptover the strong face of the other. "There, man," said he, "since youseem to mean well!"
He shook hands with his opponent, who, stung by the rebuke, now beganto sniffle.
"Sor," said he, "I am no ruffian. I am a soldier meself, and on me wayto join me company at Kaskasky, down below. Me time was out awhileback, and I came East to the States to have a bit av a fling before Ienlisted again. Now, what money I haven't give to me parents I'vespint like a man. I have had me fling for awhile, and I'm goin' backto sign on again. Sor, I am a sergeant and a good wan, though I do sayit. Me record is clean. I am Patrick Gass, first sergeant of the TinthDragoons, the same now stationed at Kaskasky. Though ye are not inuniform, I know well enough ye are an officer. Sor, I ask yerpardon--'twas only the whisky made me feel sportin' like at the time,do ye mind?"
"Gass, Patrick Gass, you said?"
"Yis, sor, of the Tinth. Barrin' me love for fightin' I am a goodsoldier. There are stripes on me sleeves be rights, but me old coat'shangin' in the barracks down below."
Lewis stood looking curiously at the man before him, the power ofwhose grip he had felt in his own. He cast an eye over his erectfigure, his easy and natural
dropping into the position of a soldier.
"You say the Tenth?" said he briefly. "You have been with the colors?Look here, my man, do you want to serve?"
"I am going right back to Kaskasky for it, sor."
"Why not enlist with us? I need men. We are off for the West, up theMissouri--for a long trip, like enough. You seem a well-built man, andyou have seen service. I know men when I see them. I want men ofcourage and good temper. Will you go?"
"I could not say, sor. I would have to ask leave at Kaskasky. I gaveme word I'd come back after I'd had me fling here in the East, yesee."
"I'll take care of that. I have full authority to recruit amongenlisted men."
"Excuse me, sor, ye are sayin' ye are goin' up the Missouri? Then Iknow yez--yez are the Captain Lewis that has been buildin' the bigboat the last two months up at the yards--Captain Lewis fromWashington."
"Yes, and from the Ohio country before then--and Kentucky, too. I amto join Captain Clark at the Point of Rocks on the Ohio. I needanother oar. Come, my man, we are on our way. Two minutes ought to beenough for you to decide."
"I'll need not the half of two!" rejoined Patrick Gass promptly. "Giveme leave of my captain, and I am with yez! There is nothin' in theworld I'd liever see than the great plains and the buffalo. 'Tis fondof travel I am, and I'd like to see the ind of the world before Idie."
"You will come as near seeing the end of it with us as anywhere else Iknow," rejoined Lewis quietly. "Get your war-bag and come aboard."
In this curious fashion Patrick Gass of the army--later one of thejournalists of the expedition, and always one of its most faithful andefficient members--signed his name on the rolls of the Lewis and Clarkexpedition.
There was not one of the frontiersmen in the boat who had any commentto make upon any phase of the transaction; indeed, it seemed much inthe day's work to them. But from that instant every man in the boatknew he had a leader who could be depended upon for prompt andefficient action in any emergency; and from that moment, also, theirleader knew he could depend on his men.
"I have nothing to complain of," said Patrick Gass, addressing his newfriends impartially, as he shifted his belongings to suit him and tookhis place at a rowing seat. "I have nothing to complain of. I've beensayin' I would like to have one more rale fight before I enlisted--thearmy is too tame for a fellow of rale spirit. None o' thim at the campyonder, where I was two days, would take it on with me after the firstday. I was fair longin' for something to interest me--and be jabers, Ifound it! Now I am continted to ind me vacation and come back to themonothony of business life."
The boat advanced steadily enough thereafter throughout the night.They pulled ashore at dawn, and, after the fashion of experiencedtravelers, were soon about the business of the morning meal.
The leader of the party drew apart for the morning plunge which washis custom. Cover lacking on the bare bar where they had landed, hewas not fully out of sight when at length, freshened by his plunge,he stood drying himself for dressing. Unconsciously, his arm extended,he looked for all the world the very statue of the young Apoxyomenosof the Vatican--the finest figure of a man that the art of antiquityhas handed down to us.
As that smiling youth out of the past stood, scraper in hand, dryinghimself after the games, so now stood this young American, type of anew race, splendid as the Greeks themselves in the immortal beauty oflife. His white body shining in the sun, every rolling muscle plainlyvisible--even that rare muscle over the hip beloved of the ancients,but now forgotten of sculptors, because rarely seen on a man today--socomely was he, so like a god in his clean youth, that Patrick Gass,unhampered by backwardness himself, turned to his new companions, whomalready he addressed each by his first name.
"George," said he to young Shannon, "George, saw ye ever the like ofyon? What a man! Lave I had knowed he could strip like yon, niverwould I have taken the chance I did last night. 'Tis wonder he didn'tkill me--in which case I'd niver have had me job. The Lord loves usIrish, anny way you fix it!"
The Magnificent Adventure Page 12
