ore fraught with
desperate peril, he had come back to her. And she--what had been her
perils? What were her thoughts?

As his eye fell upon her, even as his keen ear had known her coming,
the hand of Meriwether Lewis half unconsciously went to his breast. He
felt under it the packet of faded letters which he had so long kept
with him--which in some way he felt to be his talisman.

Yes, it was for this that he had had them! His love and hers--this had
been his shield through all. What he saw in her grave face, her
mournful eyes uplifted to his own--this was the solution of the riddle
of his life, the reason for his moods of melancholy, the answer to a
thousand unspoken prayers. He felt his heart thrill strong and full,
felt his blood spring in strong current through his veins, until they
strained, until he felt his nerves tingle as he stood, silent,
endeavoring to still the tumult within him, now that he knew the great
and satisfying truth of truths.

To her he was--what? A tall and handsome gentleman, immaculately clad,
Governor of the newest of our Territories--the largest and richest
realm ever laid under the rule of any viceroy. A bystander might have
pondered on such things, but Meriwether Lewis had no thought of them,
nor had the woman who looked up at him. No, to her eyes there stood
only the man who made her blood leap, her soul cry out:

"Yea! Yea! Now I know!"

To her also, from the divine compassion, was given answer for her
questionings. She knew that life for her, even though it ended now,
had been no blind puzzle, after all, but was a glorious and perfect
thing. She had called to him across the deep, and he had heard and
come! From the very grave itself he had arisen and come again to her!

Even here under the shadow of the gallows--even if, as both knew in
their supreme renunciation, they must part and never meet again--for
them both there could be peaceful calm, with all life's questions
answered, beautifully and surely answered, never again to rise for
conquering.

"Sir--Captain--that is to say, Governor Lewis," she corrected herself,
"I was not expecting you."

Her tone seemed icy, though her soul was in her eyes. She was all upon
the defense, as Lewis instantly understood. He took her hand in both
of his own, and looked into her face.

She gazed up at him, and swiftly, mercifully, the tears came. Gently,
as if she had been a child, he dried them for her--as once when a boy,
he had promised