Evening star., 1924-02-15

shrinking of the tall figure at his
| side.
Il have touched you on the raw
Claimed. claim II never meant to. only
| want to see you happy"
You must not be too uneasy, Will"
returned Meriwether Lewis at last.
1T is only that sometimes at night I
And the nights themselves are Won
1 derful!"
: saw you ever such nights, Merne,
! in all your life? Breathed you ever
J such air as these plains carry in the
! night time? Why do you not exult-
don't really deceive me. Merne
What is it that you see when you lie
awake at night under the stars:
4 Some face, eh? What, Merne? You
mean to tell me you are still so fool
ish? We left three months ago. /
Iher-and that is enough! Come, now.
perhaps some maid of the Mandans
on ahead, Will prove fair enough to
pipe to you or to touch the bull-hide
/ tambourine in such fashion as to
charm you from your sorrows. No
don't be offended-it is only that /
want to tell you not to take that old
affair too hard. And now 1t is time
for you to turn in.'
William Clark himself arose and
] strolled to his own blanket roll
spread 1t out. and lay down beneath
sought to follow his example, and
spread open his robe and blankets
close to the fire. AS he leaned back
he felt something hard and crack
ling under his hand. and looked
down.
1t was his custom to carry in his
blankets for sofe keeping his long
spyglass. a pair of dry moccasins and
Ia buckskin tunic. These articles
were here, as he expected to find
them Yet here among them was a
folded and sealed envelope-a letter.
He had not placed it here-yet here
| it was.
/ He caught 1t up in his hand. looked
at it wonderingly. kicked the ends
! of the embers together SO that they
supcrscription-and paused in amaze
| nfent. Well enough he knew the firm
upright, characterize hand which ad-
dressed this missive to him:
ITO Captain Meriwether Lewis
on the trail In the west"
| 4 feeling somewhat akin to awe
| fell upon Meriwether Lewis. He felt
a cold prickling along his spine. 1t
was for him, yes-but whence had
it come? There had been no mes
senger from outside the camp. For
ono brief instant it seemed indeed as
! if this bit of paper-which of all
possible gifts Of the gods he would
| most have coveted-had dropped from
the heavens themselves at his feet
heart had been on the point of break
/ ing. 1t seemed to him-and II had
come to comfort him. 1t was from
her. 1t ran thus:
Dear Sir and Friend:
may be when this shall find you. Are
you among the Gauis. the Goths, the
Visigoths. the Huns, the vandals. or
the Cimbri? Wherever you be, our
hopes and faith go with You. You
are. as 1 fancy. in 4 desert. a wilder
ness. worth no mans owning. Life
passes meantime. To what end, my
friend?
II fancy you in the deluge. In the
hurricane, in the blaze of the sun
or in the bleak winds. alone, cheer
less, perhaps athirst. perhaps know
| ing hunger. I know that you will
meet these things like man. But
to what end? What is the purpose
of all this? You have left behind
you all that makes life worth while
fortune, fame. life. ambition. honor
to go away into the desert At what
time are you going to turn back and
come to us once more?
oh. If only 1 had the right-if
only I dared-if only I were in a
position to lay some command on
you to bring you back: Methinks
then / would. You could do so much
for us all-so much for me. 1t would
mean SO much to my own happiness
II You were here.
| Continued in Tomorrow's Starr
| .... ------s-------
! Hope, till hope creates from it's own
wreck the thing it contemplateS.
! \ woman cannot always discard a