Meriwether Lewis, come back! You have gone far enough. On ahead are only cruel hardship 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 torment. I said that none the less I would not let you go. I said my face still should stay with you, until you were willing to turn back.
Turn back now, Meriwether Lewis! Come back!
The letter was not signed, 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 smiling, 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 him: Oh, if only I had the right to lay some command on you!
Was not he, who had forgotten honor, subject now to any command that she might give him?
"Will, Will!" exclaimed Meriwether Lewis, sharply, imperatively, to his friend, whom he could see dimly at a little distance as he lay.
The long figure 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 him. He took it in his hand, looked at it wonderingly.
"This letter----" began Meriwether Lewis. "Certainly you carried it for me--why did you not bring it to me long ago?"
"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 in my bed. I thought perhaps you had had it for me a long time, and placed it there as a surprise."
"Who sends it, Merne. What does it say?"
"It is from the woman whose face I have seen at night, 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 me?"