"Colonel Burr entrusted me with numerous despatches." "He mentioned the day of my visit with him in Philadelphia as the eighth after your departure. That week may have seen developments or changes which required fresh despatches." "_Poder de Dios!_" he exclaimed. "You left Philadelphia eight days later--and are here!" "At your service, senor." "_Santisima Virgen!_ And I had four horses to my carriage!" "I had nine horses beneath my saddle, in succession." "_Virgen!_ What a _caballero_!" "When a man is in haste to see his journey's end, senor, he does not loll about taverns on the way. You came in yesterday?" He bowed. "Then you may be able to tell me what are the chances of obtaining quick passage down the river." He looked across toward the shipyards with a frown. "I am now on my way to inquire, senor," he answered. "Against the better counsel of Colonel Burr, I was so ill advised as to bring a seaman from the seaboard to have charge of the water journey." "A salt-water sailor on an Ohio flat!" I exclaimed. "The senor forgets that I am a stranger to his forest wilderness." "Your pardon, Senor Vallois!--Permit me to ride with you. It may be I can assist you." "_Na-da-a!_" he protested. "I cannot permit it. You have ridden for fifteen days at more than post speed. You must first refresh yourself." "The senor forgets that I am no less eager than himself to arrange for the river passage. Rest assured I am good for another day in the saddle, if need be, at your service, senor." As I wheeled around, and we started for the riverside, he looked me up and down with a wondering glance. "_Por Dios!_" he muttered. "I had thought none could ride as ride our _vaqueros_. You are a man of iron." "I am the son of my father," I replied. "How other than hard could be the sons of the men who wrested this Western land from the savages,--who have driven the Cherokees, Creeks, and Choctaws south of Tennessee, and pressed back the Northwest Indians to their present fastnesses about the Great Lakes?" "It is true," he said. "I have been told no little of that most cruel and ferocious warfare waged by your savage enemies. I myself know the fearsomeness of the raids of our equally ferocious Apaches and Yaquis. Therefore I do not wonder that the men and the sons of the men who met their painted enemies in this gloomy wilderness should have become not only hard, but rude and harsh in their manners." "Given that and the prevailing craze for raw whiskey, and we have--what we have. Yet they are the men whose fathers met the Indian on his own ground; who themselves have met the ravaging war parties, and who will doubtless again meet them,--though I trust not again on the banks of the Ohio."