The Captain's Dog (11 page)

"I don't know as I agree with you, Captain," Sergeant Pryor said. "I think the Falls are still up ahead, but I won't be sorry to turn back This place feels like bad luck to me."

He was not alone in thinking this.

"It's going to be pretty slow going with all these skins we're carrying," Cruzatte added. Along the way the men had shot several deer and elk and were carrying the skins on their sore backs for the Captain's iron boat.

"I have a solution for that," Captain Lewis said. "We'll build two rafts and let the river do our work for us."

The river worked against us, destroying both rafts minutes after we launched them. We ended up on the opposite shore.

"Told you this place was bad luck," Pryor said. He and the other men began drying out their gear.

"Drouillard and I will scout ahead and see how the route along this side is," Captain Lewis said.

I went with them. The north bank was blanketed with prickly pear and covered with impassable boulders. After half a mile it became clear that the shoreline
could not be followed easily on foot. We returned to the men.

"We'll have to walk north to the prairie, then head back east and parallel the river," Captain Lewis said, removing prickly pear spines from my paw.

"With all these skins?"

"Regretfully, we will have to leave them behind."

That night on the prairie, a hard steady rain drenched us. We sat around a poor fire, shivering, wondering if the sun would ever rise again. This whole area put me on edge, and it wasn't because of the prickly pears or the difficult terrain. Ever since we got here the Captain seemed to have pulled into himself. I had seen him have minor bouts of melancholy along the trail, but the mood he was in now was far worse than before. I hoped he was right about the north branch not being the Missouri. I didn't want to come back this way again.

The next day we rejoined Maria's River farther downriver and slithered our way along a narrow trail above a steep hillside of slick clay. Captain Lewis slipped and nearly plunged a hundred feet into the river, but he managed to stop himself with his espontoon and crawl back up to the top. No sooner was he back on his feet than we heard Private Windsor behind us.

"God, Captain! What shall I do?"

Windsor was spread-eagled on the slippery hillside about fifteen feet below the trail. Captain Lewis was
greatly alarmed at the private's predicament, but he did not show it.

The Captain got as close to the edge as he dared and smiled down at Windsor. "You're doing just fine," he said. "You're in no immediate danger." The statements were baldfaced lies, but Windsor believed both of them. He smiled and seemed relieved. "Take your knife and dig a foothold in the clay for your foot."

Windsor reached down with his knife and began digging the hole. The only thing holding him in place was the Captain's confidence.

"That's it," the Captain said. "Careful, now."

"How's that?" Windsor asked.

"Perfect! Now slip your right moccasin off and stick your bare foot in the hole. That's right. Just drop the moccasin. Now all you have to do is to crawl forward, using your knife to pull yourself up."

Windsor crawled up the slick clay face like a blowfly on a windowpane. When he got within an arm's length of the top, the Captain and Drouillard pulled him up over the edge.

"Guess I got a bit overwrought down there," said Windsor sheepishly. "Sorry, Captain."

"You responded just about right, Private Windsor."

We arrived back at the fork two days late.

"We were just about ready to send a search party out for you," Captain Clark said.

"We had a little trouble." Captain Lewis shook his head and sat down heavily on a buffalo skin. He had not been feeling well since our drenching on the prairie.

"Did you find the Great Falls?" Captain Lewis asked.

Captain Clark shook his head. "I assume you didn't, either."

"No. And the river veers too far to the north to be the Missouri. How does the left branch look?"

"We didn't get very far up it, but I think it's the Missouri."

"And the men?"

"They disagree."

The following morning Captain Lewis, still ill, tried to convince the men that the left branch was the Missouri River. He showed them several maps, arguing his case for nearly an hour.

"It doesn't matter to me whether you're right or wrong, Captain," Colter said when Captain Lewis finished. "I can't speak for the others, but I'll follow you and Captain Clark whatever direction you choose. The way I figure it, we are in this together."

"Well put, Colter."

"I'm with the captains, too."

"Count me in."

All the men were of the same mind, which cheered Captain Lewis considerably.

June 9, 1805

I am gratified at the men's willingness to follow us despite their belief we have chosen the wrong river. I pray that we are right.

To reach the mountains before winter we will travel light and fast. To this end we left the red pirogue at the fork and will pick it up on our way home. We also left a cache of supplies there.

I am leading a land party to reach the Great Falls ahead of the others. Drouillard, J. Fields, Gibson, and Goodrich are with me. If the Falls are not up this river, we may still have time to go back down and ascend the other branch and reach the mountains before winter. Captain Clark is following on the river with the others.

I am still not feeling well. When I left this morning Sacagawea was also ill....

THE CAPTAIN SLEPT
very little our first night out because of his illness. Despite this, we were on our way again early the next morning.

A few hours after we started, the men shot four elk.

"Butcher the meat and hang what we don't need next to the river," Captain Lewis said, sitting down heavily on the ground. He was pale and very weak. He leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. I lay down next to him until the scent of those elk guts pulled me away.

When I got my fill, I returned to the Captain and found him sleeping peacefully. Rather than disturb him, I joined Private Goodrich at the river, where he was fishing. He pulled out one lively fish after another with his pole and string. It was great fun to catch the flopping fish he threw onto the bank and bring them to him. Each time I brought one, he patted me on the head, took the fish from my mouth, and put it onto the growing pile.

"They don't call you Seaman for nothin'."

"Goodrich!"

It was Captain Lewis. I ran to him, with Goodrich right on my heels. The Captain was doubled over on the ground, clutching his stomach. "Gather ... some ... chokecherry ... branches," he said through clenched teeth. "I need to make some medicine out of the bark."

Goodrich ran off. I had never seen the Captain in such pain and I wanted to help him, but there was nothing I could do but watch. Goodrich returned with the branches.

"What should I do with them, Captain?"

"Strip the bark ... make tea..."

The men were alarmed at the Captain's condition. Drouillard wanted to find Captain Clark and bring him up, but Captain Lewis wouldn't let him, insisting that he would be fine after the tea had a chance to work.

By eight o'clock the Captain was sitting. By ten o'clock he was walking. He went to sleep about eleven, and the next morning he seemed perfectly recovered.

"Bless my mother for teaching me about herbs," he said. "Shall we proceed on, gentlemen?"

We walked nearly thirty miles before the Captain called a halt, saying that he was somewhat weakened from his ailment the day before. After we made camp the Captain worked on his notes, then did some fishing using a deer spleen as bait, which worked tolerably well.

The following day we came upon a vast plain with more buffalo than we had ever seen before. In the distance there was a great rumbling noise. Captain Lewis ran toward the sound.

June 13, 1805

O the Joy! We have arrived at the Great Falls and their beauty is beyond my ability to put into words....

Colter flips through the red book. "Some pages are missing here. You were there, Drouillard. Any idea what was on them?"

Drouillard shakes his head.

I know....

THE CAPTAIN
stood on the edge of the precipice, staring across that grand crack in the prairie.

"A rainbow," he said, and began to weep.

The rainbow stretched from one side of the Falls to the other. The sound of the water was deafening. The cool mist drenched us.

It was not the beauty alone that moved him. Finding
the Great Falls meant the Shoshones were not far ahead.

The men came up and were as joyful as the Captain at the sight.

"You were right, Captain Lewis," Joe Fields said, staring in awe at the roaring spectacle.

"The important thing to me, Private Fields, is that you followed us. I value that more than this sublime sight."

The Captain stayed at the Falls while the men set up camp a short distance away. For over two hours he tried to capture the magnificent Falls by sketching them in the red book. The renderings looked pretty good to me, but each time he finished a sketch he tore the page from the red book and crumpled it in frustration.

Later that evening he used the pages to start his campfire.

June 14, 1805

I would give just about anything to be an artist. I thought about it all last night. I fear no one will believe the sights we have seen because of my inability to record them with any accuracy. If I had only pursued this skill in my younger years ... but there is nothing that can be done now.

I followed the river last evening and found there are five beautiful falls, not one. Our portage around them is going to take considerable effort....

CAPTAIN LEWIS
sent Joe Fields downriver with a letter for Captain Clark, telling him we had found the Falls and suggesting a location for the lower portage camp. Then he and I set off for a ramble.

We walked past the Falls, which the Captain was particularly drawn to. There was a small island between two of the upper falls. In the center of the island was a
dead tree towering above the others with a gigantic bird nest perched in the top branches.

"Bald eagle."

A large black bird with a white head and a yellow beak sat on the edge of the nest feeding her brood. We were close enough to see the downy eaglets open their black beaks for the food she offered. The Captain brought out the red book and tried to capture this scene, but again he ended up ripping pages out of his journal.

"Let's go, Sea. I'm more skillful with a rifle than I am with a pen."

We walked up to the last falls, from where we could see an immense flat prairie cut in two by the meandering Missouri River. Ahead of us was a smaller river that flowed into the Missouri, with a thousand buffalo grazing next to its shore.

"Perhaps we should shoot some dinner in case we don't have time to make it back to camp before dark."

A brisk wind blew toward us. Not being able to pick up our scent, the buffaloes continued to graze, unconcerned at our approach. The Captain picked a young cow out of the group. He steadied his rifle on his espontoon and fired. She was hit squarely, but she didn't fall over. The herd moved a short distance away from her and continued grazing. As we watched her bleeding out, the fur on my back came to attention. I turned my head.
There was a grizzly behind us, not twenty steps away. My barking brought him up on his hind legs. Captain Lewis snapped his rifle to his shoulder and pulled the trigger. There was a sickening
click
He had forgotten to reload after he shot the buffalo.

"Run, Sea!"

The grizzly was right on our heels. We ran to the river. The Captain splashed into the water up to his waist, then turned around and pointed his espontoon at the grizzly. I thought surely the bear would come in after us, but when he saw the espontoon he skidded to a stop, turned, and ran away.

"That was a bit of good luck."

That was a miracle. The grizzly continued to run, glancing back every once in a while to make sure we weren't chasing him.

"I think we'll leave the buffalo cow for Mister Grizzly."

We rambled over the smaller river and explored it for a few hours. On our way back across the prairie an animal we hadn't seen before came out of its burrow and snarled at us. It looked like a cross between a wolf and a cat. Captain Lewis fired at it, but it disappeared back into its den and didn't come out again.

We hadn't taken three hundred steps from the den when two bull buffalo charged us.

"I don't think they know what we are," Captain Lewis said. "Let's have some fun, Sea." He walked right
at the charging buffalo. As soon as they got close enough to see we were a man and dog, they reeled around and ran away.

"It appears that all the beasts in the neighborhood are in league to destroy us." Captain Lewis chuckled. "Perhaps we should head back to camp before our luck sours."

I think this was among the happiest days the Captain ever had.

June 16, 1805

This afternoon I rejoined Captain Clark below the Falls and found Sacagawea gravely ill. After a battle of wills, I finally prevailed upon her to swallow some of our medicine, although I am not convinced it will do her any good....

"
I DON'T KNOW
what else to do," Captain Lewis said. He looked down at Bird Woman. She was finally asleep.

Captain Clark cradled Pomp in his arms. "What do you think she has?"

"I wish I knew. Stomach cramps, fever, no appetite ... it could be anything. If the fever does not break soon, we're going to lose her."

"I want to take her home," Charbonneau said.

Captain Lewis looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Home?"

"To the Hidatsa village."

The Captain pushed Charbonneau out of the lodge so they wouldn't disturb Bird Woman.

"Listen, you old fool. Your wife is in no condition to travel. She can't even stand! If she died along the way, what would happen to your son? How would you feed him?"