o wrote it."

"She had no right----"

"Ah, but that is the cruelty of it--she _did_ have the right!"

"There are some things which a man must work out for himself," said
William Clark slowly, after a time. "I don't think I'll ask any
questions. If there is any place where I can take half your burden,
you know what I will do. We've worked share and share alike, but
perhaps some things cannot be shared, even by you and me. It is for
you to tell me if I can help you now. If not, then you must decide."

Even as he spoke, his beloved friend was turning away from him.
Meriwether Lewis walked out alone into the night. Stumbling, he passed
on out among the shadows, under the starlight. Without much plan, he
found himself on a little eminence of the bluff near by.

He sat down, his blanket drawn over his head, like an Indian,
motionless, thinking, fighting out his own fight, as sometimes a man
must, alone. He did not know that William Clark, most faithful of
friends, himself silent as a Sioux, had followed, and sat a little
distance apart, his eyes fixed on the motionless figure outlined
against the sky.

The dawn came at last and kindled a red band along the east. The gray
light at length grew more clear. A coyote on the bluff raised a long
and quavering cry, like some soul in torture. As if it were his own
voice, Meriwether Lewis stirred, rose, drew back the blanket from his
shoulders, and turned down the hill.

He saw his friend rising and advancing to him. Once more their hands
gripped, as they had when the two first met on the Ohio, almost a year
ago, at the beginning of their journey.

Lewis frowned heavily. He could not speak for a time.

"Give the orders to the men to roll out, Captain Clark," said he at
length.

"Which way, Captain Lewis--upstream or down?"

"The expedition will go forward, Captain Clark."

"God bless you, Merne!" said the red-headed one.

CHAPTER III

THE DAY'S WORK

"Roll out, men, roll out!"

The sleeping men stirred under their robes and blankets and turned
out, quickly awake, after the fashion of the wilderness. The sentinel
came in, his moccasins wet, his tunic girded tight against the cool of
the morning, which even at that season was chill upon the high plains.
Soon the fires were alight and the odors of roasting meat arose. The
hour was scarce yet dawn.

"Ordway! Gass! Pryor!" Lewis called in the sergeants in charge of the
three messes. "The boy Shannon has not re