Part 24 (1/2)
DEAR SIR AND FRIEND:
Greetings to you, wherever youthe Gauls, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Huns, the Vandals, or the Cio with you You are, as I fancy, in a desert, a wilderness, worth noLife passes meantie, in the hurricane, in the blaze of the sun, or in the bleak winds, alone, cheerless, perhaps athirst, perhaps knowing hunger I know that you will s like a man But to what end--what is the purpose of all this? You have left behind you all that makes life worth while--fortune, fao away into the desert At what ti to turn back and coht--if only I dared--if only I were in a position to lay so you back!
Methinks then I would You could do so much for us all--so much for me It would mean so much to my own happiness if you were here
Meriwether Lewis, coh On ahead are only cruel hardshi+p and continual failure Here are fortune, fame, wealth, ambition, honor--and more I told you one time I would lay my hand upon your shoulder out yonder, no matter where you were I said that you should look into my face yonder when you sat alone beside your fire under the stars You said that it would be toro I saidto turn back
Turn back _now_, Meriwether Lewis! Coned, and needed not to be Meriwether Lewis sat staring at the paper clutched in his hand
Her face! Ah, did he not see it now? Was it not true what she had said? He saw her face now--but not s, happy, contented, as it once had been No, he saw it pale and in distress He saw tears in her eyes And she had written hiht to lay sootten honor, subject now to any coive him?
”Will, Will!” exclaimed Meriwether Lewis, sharply, imperatively, to his friend, whom he could see diure in its robes straightened quickly, for by day or night William Clark was instantly ready for any sudden alarm He started up on his robe, with his hand on his rifle
”Who calls there? Who goes?” he cried, half awake
”It is I, Will,” said Meriwether Lewis, advancing toward him
”Listen--tell me, Will, why did you do this?”
”Why did I do what? Merne, what is wrong?”
Clark was now on his feet, and Lewis held out the letter to hily
”This letter----” began Meriwether Lewis ”Certainly you carried it for o?”
”What letter? Whose letter is it, Merne? I never saw it before What is it you are saying? Are you mad?”
”I think so,” said Lewis, ”I think I must be Here is a letter--I found it but now intime, and placed it there as a surprise”
”Who sends it, Merne What does it say?”
”It is froht, Will She asks me to come back!”
”Burn it--throw it in the fire!” said William Clark sharply ”Go back?
What, forsake Mr Jefferson--leave ive me, Will, but you searchyou have all the honor of it I was going to surrender my place to you”
”You cannot desert us, Merne! You shall not! Go back to bed! Give me the letter! Bah! it is some counterfeit, some trick of one of the men!”
”It would be worth any man's life to try a jest like that,” said Meriwether Lewis ”It is no counterfeit I know it too well This letter ritten before we left St Louis How it came here I know not, but I knorote it”