THE MARATHON
As if two gods should play some heavenly match, and on this wager
lay two earthly women.--_Shakespeare_.
An automaton, scarcely thinking, I gained the platform of the station.
There was a sound of hissing steam, a rolling cloud of sulphurous smoke,
a shouting of railway captains, a creaking of the wheels. Without
volition of my own, I was on my northward journey. Presently I looked
around and found seated at my side the man whom I then recollected I was
to meet--Doctor Samuel Ward. I presume he took the train after I did.
"What's wrong, Nicholas?" he asked. "Trouble of any kind?"
I presume that the harsh quality of my answer surprised him. He looked
at me keenly.
"Tell me what's up, my son," said he.
"You know Miss Elisabeth Churchill--" I hesitated.
He nodded. "Yes," he rejoined; "and damn you, sir! if you give that girl
a heartache, you'll have to settle with me!"
"Some one will have to settle with me!" I returned hotly.
"Tell me, then."
So, briefly, I did tell him what little I knew of the events of the last
hour. I told him of the shame and humiliation of it all. He pondered for
a minute and asked me at length if I believed Miss Elisabeth suspected
anything of my errand of the night before.
"How could she?" I answered. "So far as I can recollect I never
mentioned the name of the Baroness von Ritz."
Then, all at once, I did recollect! I did remember that I had mentioned
the name of the baroness that very morning to Elisabeth, when the
baroness passed us in the East Room! I had not told the truth--I had
gone with a lie on my lips that very day, and asked her to take vows
with me in which no greater truth ought to be heard than the simple
truth from me to her, in any hour of the day, in any time of our two
lives!
Doctor Ward was keen enough to see the sudden confusion on my face, but
he made no comment beyond saying that he doubted not time would clear it
all up; that he had known many such affairs.
"But mind you one thing," he added; "keep those two women apart."
"Then why do you two doddering old idiots, you and John Calhoun, with
life outworn and the blood dried in your veins, send me, since you
doubt me so much, on an errand of this kind? You see what it has done
for me. I am done with John Calhoun. He may get some other fool for his
service."
"Where do you propose going, then, my friend?"
"West," I answered. "West to the Rockies--"
Doctor Ward calmly produced a tortoise shell snuffbox from his left-hand
waistcoat pocket, and deliberately took snuff. "You are going to do
nothing of the kind," said he calmly. "You are going to keep your
promise to John Calhoun and to me. Believe me, the business in hand is
vital. You go to Canada now in the most important capacity you have ever
had."
"I care nothing for that," I answered bitterly.
"But you are the agent of your country. You are called to do your
country's urgent work. Here is your trouble over one girl. Would you
make trouble for a million American girls--would you unsettle thousands
and thousands of American homes because, for a time, you have known
trouble? All life is only trouble vanquished. I ask you now to be a man;
I not only expect it, but demand it of you!"
His words carried weight in spite of myself. I began to listen. I took
from his hand the package, looked at it, examined it. Finally, as he sat
silently regarding me, I broke the seal.
"Now, Nicholas Trist," resumed Doctor Ward presently, "there is to be
at Montreal at the date named in these papers a meeting of the directors
of the Hudson Bay Company of England. There will be big men there--the
biggest their country can produce; leaders of the Hudson Bay Company,
many, public men even of England. It is rumored that a brother of Lord
Aberdeen, of the British Ministry, will attend. Do you begin to
understand?"
Ah, did I not? Here, then, was further weaving of those complex plots
which at that time hedged in all our history as a republic. Now I
guessed the virtue of our knowing somewhat of England's secret plans, as
she surely did of ours. I began to feel behind me the impulse of John
Calhoun's swift energy.
"It is Oregon!" I exclaimed at last.
Doctor Ward nodded. "Very possibly. It has seemed to Mr. Calhoun very
likely that we may hear something of great importance regarding the far
Northwest. A missed cog now may cost this country a thousand miles of
territory, a hundred years of history."
Doctor Ward continued: "England, as you know," said he, "is the enemy of
this country as much to-day as ever. She claims she wishes Texas to
remain free. She forgets her own record--forgets the burning cities of
Rohilkhand, the imprisoned princesses of Oudh! Might is her right. She
wants Texas as a focus of contention, a rallying point of sectionalism.
If she divides us, she conquers us. That is all. She wants the chance
for the extension of her own hold on this continent, which she will push
as far, and fast as she dare. She must have cotton. She would like land
as well."
"That means also Oregon?"
He nodded. "Always with the Texas question comes the Oregon question.
Mr. Calhoun is none too friendly to Mr. Polk, and yet he knows that
through Jackson's influence with the Southern democracy Polk has an
excellent chance for the next nomination for the presidency. God knows
what folly will come then. But sometime, one way or another, the joint
occupancy of England and the United States in the Oregon country must
end. It has been a waiting game thus far, as you know; but never think
that England has been idle. This meeting in Montreal will prove that to
you."
In spite of myself, I began to feel the stimulus of a thought like this.
It was my salvation as a man. I began to set aside myself and my own
troubles.
"You are therefore," he concluded, "to go to Montreal, and find your own
way into that meeting of the directors of the Hudson Bay Company. There
is a bare chance that in this intrigue Mexico will have an emissary on
the ground as well. There is reason to suspect her hostility to all our
plans of extension, southwest and northwest. Naturally, it is the card
of Mexico to bring on war, or accept it if we urge; but only in case she
has England as her ally. England will get her pay by taking Texas, and
what is more, by taking California, which Mexico does not value. She
owes England large sums now. That would leave England owner of the
Pacific coast; for, once she gets California, she will fight us then for
_all_ of Oregon. It is your duty to learn all of these matters--who is
there, what is done; and to do this without making known your own
identity."
I sat for a moment in thought. "It is an honor," said I finally; "an
honor so large that under it I feel small."
"Now," said Doctor Ward, placing a gnarled hand on my shoulder, "you
begin to talk like a Marylander. It's a race, my boy, a race across this
continent. There are two trails--one north and one mid-continent. On
these paths two nations contend in the greatest Marathon of all the
world. England or the United States--monarchy or republic--aristocracy
or humanity'? These are some of the things which hang on the issue of
this contest. Take then your duty and your honor, humbly and
faithfully."
"Good-by," he said, as we steamed into Baltimore station. I turned, and
he was gone.