



Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
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produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)









 THE

 MAGNIFICENT

 ADVENTURE

 _Being the Story of the World's
 Greatest Exploration and the
 Romance of a Very Gallant
 Gentleman._

 A NOVEL

 BY
 EMERSON HOUGH

 AUTHOR OF

 THE COVERED WAGON,
 NORTH OF 36, ETC.

 ILLUSTRATED BY
 ARTHUR I. KELLER

 NEW YORK
 GROSSET & DUNLAP
 PUBLISHERS

 Made in the United States of America




 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
 EMERSON HOUGH

 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY

 Printed in the United States of America




 [Illustration: "'Him Ro'shones,' replied the girl"
 [PAGE 219]]




 TO
 ROBERT H. DAVIS
 GOOD FRIEND
 INVALUABLE COLLABORATOR




CONTENTS


 PART I

 CHAPTER                                                   PAGE

      I. MOTHER AND SON                                      3

     II. MERIWETHER AND THEODOSIA                           15

    III. MR. BURR AND MR. MERRY                             30

     IV. PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY                            36

      V. THE PELL-MELL AND SOME CONSEQUENCES                47

     VI. THE GREAT CONSPIRACY                               71

    VII. COLONEL BURR AND HIS DAUGHTER                      86

   VIII. THE PARTING                                        94

     IX. MR. THOMAS JEFFERSON                              105

      X. THE THRESHOLD OF THE WEST                         117

     XI. THE TAMING OF PATRICK GASS                        128

    XII. CAPTAIN WILLIAM CLARK                             137

   XIII. UNDER THREE FLAGS                                 143

    XIV. THE RENT IN THE ARMOR                             153

 PART II

      I. UNDER ONE FLAG                                    167

     II. THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER                             182

    III. THE DAY'S WORK                                    191

     IV. THE CROSSROADS OF THE WEST                        199

      V. THE APPEAL                                        208

     VI. WHICH WAY?                                        218

    VII. THE MOUNTAINS                                     230

   VIII. TRAIL'S END                                       241

     IX. THE SUMMONS                                       250

      X. THE ABYSS                                         256

     XI. THE BEE                                           272

    XII. WHAT VOICE HAD CALLED?                            280

   XIII. THE NEWS                                          292

    XIV. THE GUESTS OF A NATION                            300

     XV. MR. JEFFERSON'S ADVICE                            308

    XVI. THE QUALITY OF MERCY                              316

   XVII. THE FRIENDS                                       328

  XVIII. THE WILDERNESS                                    336

    XIX. DOWN TO THE SEA                                   351




 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


 "'Him Ro'shones,' replied the girl"            _Frontispiece_

                                                    FACING PAGE

 "'Mistah Thomas Jeffahson!' was his sole announcement"     50

 "'Oh, Theo, what have I done?'"                           162

 "Her face indeed!"                                        252




 THE
 MAGNIFICENT ADVENTURE




CHAPTER I

MOTHER AND SON


A woman, tall, somewhat angular, dark of hair and eye, strong of
features--a woman now approaching middle age--sat looking out over the
long, tree-clad <DW72>s that ran down from the gallery front of the
mansion house to the gate at the distant roadway. She had sat thus for
some moments, many moments, her gaze intently fixed, as though waiting
for something--something or someone that she did not now see, but
expected soon to see.

It was late afternoon of a day so beautiful that not even old
Albemarle, beauty spot of Virginia, ever produced one more
beautiful--not in the hundred years preceding that day, nor in the
century since then. For this was more than a hundred years ago; and
what is now an ancient land was then a half opened region, settled
only here and there by the great plantations of the well-to-do. The
house that lay at the summit of the long and gentle <DW72>, flanked by
its wide galleries--its flung doors opening it from front to rear to
the gaze as one approached--had all the rude comfort and assuredness
usual with the gentry of that time and place.

It was the privilege, and the habit, of the Widow Lewis to sit idly
when she liked, but her attitude now was not that of idleness.
Intentness, reposeful acceptance of life, rather, showed in her
motionless, long-sustained position. She was patient, as women are;
but her strong pose, its freedom from material support, her restrained
power to do or to endure, gave her the look of owning something more
than resignation, something more than patience. A strong figure of a
woman, one would have said had one