I considered. ‘Brilliant. Forceful. Ambitious, to be sure. He sees life as a struggle and himself at war with the world. But he’s also idealistic, practical, sometimes sentimental, and tied to his family, and he has a wry view of human nature. He’s obsessed with his place in history. He’s as hard and multifaceted as a cut diamond, Mr President. He believes in logic and reason, and can be talked to.’
‘But a tough negotiator?’
‘Oh, yes. And that rarest of men: he knows what he wants.’
‘Which is?’
‘Glory. And power for its own sake.’
‘The old tyrant dream. What I want is human happiness, which I believe comes from independence and self-reliance. Right, Lewis?’
The frontier officer smiled. ‘So you have told me.’
‘Happiness comes from the land,’ Jefferson lectured. ‘The independent yeoman farmer is the happiest of all men – and the need for land justifies our need for expansion. For democracy to work, Gage, men must be farmers. If Greece and Rome taught us anything, it is that. Once we cluster in cities we become slaves to a few, and the American experiment is finished. Land, land – that’s the key, isn’t it Lewis? Land!’
‘There’s no shortage of that in the west,’ the secretary said. ‘Of course, it’s occupied by Indians.’
‘And now we have a Norwegian, Magnus Bloodhammer, who wants to explore it. Indians, bears, wolves – none of that daunts you, does it, Magnus? What is so fascinating that you take such risk?’
‘That America’s social experiment in fact started with Norwegians,’ my companion said. ‘My ancestors sought refuge here first.’
‘You really think Vikings preceded us all on this continent?’
‘Not just Vikings, but Norsemen. There’s evidence they came here in the fourteenth century, nearly one hundred fifty years before Columbus.’
‘What evidence?’
Magnus shoved his china aside and took out his map from his cylinder. Once more I wondered what was in the compartment that must be at the cylinder’s end. ‘You’ll see the significance immediately,’ he said, unrolling the chart. ‘This was found in a knight’s tomb in a medieval church, meaning it was drawn about 1360. Is this coastline mere coincidence?’
Jefferson stood, peering. ‘By the soul of Mercator, it looks like Hudson Bay.’
Lewis came around the table to look and nodded. ‘Remarkable, if true.’
‘Of course it’s true,’ Magnus assured.
My mind was caught on the president’s comment of Indians, bears, and wolves. Yet instead of the mockery I’d half expected, the other three had formed a little triumvirate. ‘I’m surprised you’re not more surprised,’ I said.
‘At what?’ Lewis asked.
I gestured to the map. ‘At what may be one of the most startling historical finds of all time. The Norse before Columbus? You believe it?’
Jefferson and Lewis looked at each other. ‘There have been rumours,’ Lewis said.
‘Rumours of what? Tigers as well as elephants?’
‘Of blue-eyed Indians, Mr Gage,’ Jefferson said. ‘Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye reported them when he explored the lower Missouri River in 1733. He came across a tribe called the Mandans, who live in communities reminiscent of northern European habitation in medieval times. A dry moat, stockade, and wooden houses. They farm instead of roam. And some of them are surprisingly fair in colouring, with their leaders sporting beards. Never heard of an Indian with a beard.’
‘There’s also an old legend that a Prince Madoc of Wales set out from Britain to the west in 1170 with ten ships, never to return,’ Lewis explained. ‘The names Mandan and Madoc are enough alike to make one wonder if the legend could somehow be true.’
‘Wait. The Welsh got to the middle of America?’
Jefferson shrugged. ‘It’s a possibility. The Mississippi and Missouri, or the Saint Lawrence and the Great Lakes, or the Nelson and Red rivers from Hudson’s Bay – all could lead wanderers to the general area of the Mandan, the centre of our continent.’
‘I’ve seen fair-eyed Indians myself at Kaskaskia, in the Illinois country,’ Lewis said. ‘General George Rogers Clark has reported the same. Where did they come from?’
‘Mr President, I believe past men of power in your country wouldn’t have been entirely surprised at my information either,’ Magnus interrupted. ‘Many, like Washington or Franklin, are or were Freemasons – true?’
‘Yes. But not me, Bloodhammer.’
‘Still, if these leaders were your friends, you know of Masonic ties to the persecuted Knights Templar,’ he insisted.
I groaned inwardly. We were about to lose any credibility.
‘Is it possible Templars fled to America?’ Magnus went on. ‘And created a utopian idea that is being recreated, even here in your new capital? These are very grand buildings and avenues for a new nation. And your streets make intriguing patterns to anyone familiar with the sacred geometry of the east.’
‘Simply modern planning.’ The president looked guarded.
‘No. The United States was created for a purpose, I’m certain of it. A secret purpose. I think it was to recreate a golden age long lost, an age of gods and magic.’
‘But why would you think that?’
‘This city, for one. When it was founded, when cornerstones were laid, its size. And because of that.’ He pointed to the hammer symbol on his map.
‘What is that, Magnus?’
‘It’s a symbol for the hammer of the god Thor.’
‘You think you’ll find Thor in America?’
‘No, just his legacy.’
I expected Jefferson to have us packed off to a madhouse, but his bright eyes flashed with more understanding than I was comfortable with. ‘His legacy? How interesting. Well, I’m a scholar of the past myself, with quite the library. I’ve read of your Forn Sior, and more besides. We don’t know just what lies beyond, do we, or who walked there? Pale Indians. Prehistoric beasts. Rumours of violent weather unknown in Europe. Medicine men warning of baleful spirits. I am not certain of any of it, gentlemen. But I am curious. I’m curious.’
Magnus said nothing. I, meanwhile, was realising why I was reluctant to leave New York. Baleful spirits?
‘The Welsh are one possibility,’ Jefferson said. ‘That you two have given us another just strengthens the possibility that Vérendrye was not exaggerating. What if a lost colony of Welshmen, or Norsemen, interbred with the native population and persists as a tribe living in walled towns somewhere up the Missouri? Alternately, there are theories that some of the lost tribes of Israel might have somehow made their way to America and provided the ancestry of the American Indian. And tales that the Carthaginians defeated by Rome might have fled across the Atlantic to escape the sack of their city.’
‘Yes!’ said Magnus. He nodded at me.
‘Plato wrote of a lost Atlantis, and the astronomer Corli has contemplated its location. Indians say tobacco grows where the hairs of a burning god fell from the sky. Is the bloodline of King David or Hannibal roaming the western desert? All these groups might have forgotten their origins. But if it could be proven, the stakes are significant.’
‘How so?’ I asked.
‘European empires in the New World are based in part on claims of first arrival,’ Lewis explained. ‘If it turns out the first arrivals from Europe were other groups entirely, it undermines the legitimacy of British, French, and Spanish claims to land ownership.’
‘Which could improve the chances of United States’ claim or purchase,’ Jefferson said. ‘Our expanding population gives us the possibility of ownership by occupation, but that can lead to wars we don’t want. A sale is preferable, from a party whose past claim is in historical doubt. If the Norse came first, it could shake world politics. The important thing is that we learn the truth, and ideally learn it before the French, Spanish, or British do. That, gentlemen, is why you can count on my support for your scouting expedition – but only if you confide to me. I trust your first loyalty is to your home country, Ethan?’