Rivers West Read Online Free PDF Page B

enough.”
    â€œPlease, Miss Majoribanks, aren’t you imagining this? I mean, your brother is an ambitious student. He is a naturalist of particular skill…a known man in his field. But he has a way of becoming deeply involved in his work, of losing himself in it. I believe you should have patience.”
    â€œI know my brother is in serious trouble, Mr. Tate. He may have been murdered or held prisoner. I mean to go west and find out for myself.”
    â€œPlease, please!” Tate protested. “This is all romance. You have no certain knowledge—”
    â€œBut I have! When my brother and I were very young we used to play all kinds of games—war games, capture games, often fighting plots against the Republic…you know how children are. We invented a country,
our
country. We called it—and I don’t know where my brother got the name—we called it ‘Iggisfeld.’”
    â€œI understand, but—”
    â€œYou do
not
understand. Please listen. There was a girl next door whom we both detested. She learned of our game, eavesdropping, I suspect, and she teased us about it. Her name was Pucinara…I mean, it really was. So to us ‘Pucinara’ became a name, our name, for the enemy.”
    â€œYes, of course, but I scarcely see—”
    â€œPlease, Mr. Tate, read this.” She handed him a sheet of paper.
    Simon Tate took the paper, and, fortunately for me, he read aloud.
    After a brief account of his health, travels, and general condition, Charles Majoribanks listed a dozen or so plants by their common or botanical names and followed with several butterflies and spiders observed. Then he added,
“You will be interested to know that I have come upon a particularly dangerous infection, a form of the Pucinara, which, if left unchecked, will be a grave danger to the Iggisfeld. I must follow this up, and if not prevented, will forward my conclusions to you. You will know those scholars best able to deal with this material.”
    Simon Tate paused when he had finished reading, then reread the message again to himself.
    â€œSo I’ve come to you, Mr. Tate. You are an innkeeper and a cattle dealer, but you are also a man with wide knowledge of affairs. What should we do about this.”
    Tate looked at the message again, then looked at her. “What do you believe it means?”
    â€œMr. Tate, the plants and other wild life listed were all known to my brother before he left home. There would be no purpose in his sending me such a list except to lend obscurity to what follows, which is the real message.
    â€œMy brother has come upon some plot, some people he believes are dangerous to the country. This is his way of communicating that information to me. Obviously, he suspected his letter would be opened and read, and he wished it to sound harmless while yet telling us what he wished us to know.”
    Tate stared thoughtfully at the letter.
    â€œMr. Tate, the Louisiana Territory once belonged to France. It also belonged to Spain. There are those in both countries who might regret that it has fallen into our hands.
    â€œThere is unrest in Mexico, Mr. Tate, and I know enough of what is happening in New Orleans to know that every loose-footed adventurer in that part of the world is gathering there or in St. Louis or Pittsburgh or Lexington…expecting something to happen.”
    â€œYou seem well informed.”
    She was intelligent, and she was assured. I was surprised to see how assured. Yet as she continued to talk, I could see why she had reason to be.
    â€œMr. Tate, you knew my father?”
    â€œOf course. I respected him very much, a very astute businessman and trader. He made few mistakes.”
    â€œHe made
no
mistakes. And he made none because he had information, the very best information and much more information than anyone else. He took care to see that his news was not only the latest but the best.”
    â€œHow do