"His niece. Did you not meet her at the table of our Jacobin philosopher? To be sure you did! I have not so soon forgotten that gallant exploit with the fence rails!... Thanks to the obstinacy of her uncle, she will be muddying that dainty arched foot in the wayside bog for days to come. There will be few Dr. Robinsons between here and Pittsburg to pry out the carriage of the bemired Dulcinea." "Ah, well," I observed, "doubtless the senor will arrive in time enough to take advantage of the spring fresh. What he loses on the road he will regain by the added swiftness of the Ohio's current." "True--true." "I had myself thought to take advantage of the early floods. My interests impel me to return to Louisiana as speedily as possible." The Colonel gave me another of his shrewd looks. "You will not take it amiss, doctor," he said, "if I repeat current gossip that the object of your Winter in the Federal City was not attained." I nodded, without show of offence, and he added quickly, "As well, as well, my dear sir! It has brought you better fortune, and your wish atop! You shall have a letter from me to General Wilkinson." The suddenness of this took me unawares, but he had turned at the words to summon the servant, and did not observe my confusion. Calling for pen, ink, and paper, he turned again to me with outstretched hand. "Your hand to it, doctor!" he cried. "You are with us?--you cast in your fortune with the future Empire of the West?" "A word, sir," I protested. "The heritage left me by my father was scant as to property, but I have found it rich in wisdom. It included this old adage, 'Look before you leap.'" "Good! good, sir! Most excellent advice! Yet have I not shown you the prospect?" "You have, sir, and not without avail. It is an alluring prospect. I confess myself tempted. Yet--I have seen what the French term the mirage. I should prefer to hold my decision until I have dipped my cup in the lake and found it filled." "Eh! eh!" he chuckled. "I'll wager there's Scotch blood in your veins--Scotch blood!" "At the least, I would look closer at the water," I insisted. "You shall, sir--my word for it!" he responded, with an assurance which shook my last doubt. "You shall have the letter to Wilkinson. When it has brought you your wish, then, and not until then, need you consider your pledge binding." "Sir," I said, tempted beyond my strength, "I accept the terms." "Your hand to it!" he cried, and his soft white fingers closed about mine with a strength of grip that astonished me. "To you, sir, shall be entrusted the double mission of opening communication across the Western boundaries with our Mexican allies, and of negotiating with the present Spanish authorities for the Santa Fe trade. I need hardly mention to a man of your intelligence that such projects as we contemplate are not carried to completion without funds. To me falls the task of collecting the sinews of war."