The Argo Goes West

15, West Passage

The room was made with plenty of mahogany wood, and the floor was covered with gobelin carpets, giving it a chic and calm impression. The windows were closed with velvet curtains, and a brass wall lamp illuminated the room. There was a large desk, a chaise longue that doubled as a bed, a small table and chairs for meetings, and the American flag on the wall. It was a special passenger car custom-built by the Pullman Company. As Roosevelt and Miss Craig boarded, all the staff waiting inside bowed to them.

A railroad map of the USA was spread out on the table, with pins stuck in the corners.

"Can you tell me the route?", Roosevelt asked.

"Let me introduce him first," said Mr. Brown of the American Railroad Association. "Pete Stryker in charge of operations."

A crew-cut lad who looked like a Yale athlete got up from his chair and reached for Roosevelt.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Vice President."

Roosevelt accepted the handshake with a slight nod. Stryker was surprised that his grip wasn't as strong as it looked.

Stryker pulled out several pins from the map, placed them in the palm of his hand, and stuck one into the location of Chicago on the map.

"Normally, we would take the route from Chicago to Omaha and San Francisco. However, the tracks are currently severed in many places in this section, and there is no prospect of restoration at all. The situation is similar for the Old Kansas-Pacific Railroad, which runs west from Kansas City. So we headed south to St. Louis-" Stryker sticks a second pin into St. Louis on the map. "Go to Dallas, then head north. Connected to the old Kansas and Pacific Railroad at Burlington. Head west from here. Whether we go from Denver to Cheyenne or from Salt Lake City to Ogden, we'll make that decision once we get to Denver and get the latest information."

Each location on the map was pinned with a pin. Roosevelt mentally drew a line connecting the dots and muttered, "That's a long way around."

"Yes, of course," Stryker dutifully answered Roosevelt to himself.　"Although there is also the possibility of further detours. In other words, if the route that is currently safe is destroyed--"

"We want to avoid that, so we have to secure the tracks that are currently in use. Elihu, is that all right? "

"Yeah," Secretary of War Elihu Root's answer was blunt. "We have completed the deployment of troops as far as Colorado Springs. But that's it. Because we have a limited military force."

"I understand that. Just march according to the progress of the Argo. We will also organize volunteer cavalries, so please cooperate with each other."

"Volunteer cavalries?"

"Yes."

The secretary of war wanted to know what volunteers were like, but Roosevelt offered no further explanation. Because Roosevelt himself hasn't met them yet, he can't give more details.

"The Navy is currently moving Texas, Indiana, and Kearsarge to the Straits of Magellan." So said Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long. If the Panama Canal had been completed, the navy could have been dispatched to the Pacific quickly.

Roosevelt was thrilled right now. During the Spanish-American War, he volunteered as an army officer and took command on the front lines. Even as he reluctantly signed papers in his office, he remembered those times. Devising strategies in the camp, Boosting the morale of his men. War suited Roosevelt. Therefore, this incident was a perfect opportunity for Roosevelt. Although he was the Vice President of the United States, he intended to take the lead on board the Argo himself. He hoped to one day go on an adventure trip to Africa and South America, and now his dream has come true. The frontier is back in USA. The westward spirit in the American was now burning hot in Theodore Roosevelt.