Cahoon and Cutler argued against the proposition and used all the powers of persuasion they could command to get possession of the letter; then, finding it in vain, they suddenly left the room. Hardly had they done so when Emma Smith's nephew appeared and announced that Mrs. Smith wished to see Brothers Call and Evans, and led them to her room. As they approached she said "You have a letter from Judge Thomas, haven't you?" They replied "Yes, and we want to see Joseph." She declared positively that they could not see him, and was not moved from the decision when they rehearsed to her their reasons for wishing to see him. She did not tell them he was not at home, but her language rather implied that he was absent. She plead hard for them to give her the letter to deliver to him, and gave her solemn promise to so deliver it, and then to arrange for them to have an interview with him. They finally determined that if they could not see the Prophet and warn him personally against being taken to Carthage, the next most important thing was to get the letter into his hands, and they accordingly gave it to Emma and she opened it and read it aloud in their presence and also within the hearing of the doorkeepers, Reynolds Cahoon and Alpheus Cutler. The brethren repeated to all three what Judge Thomas had said to them, that they might be thoroughly impressed with the danger of the Prophet giving himself up to be taken to Carthage, and requested also that the Prophet be informed of all that they had heard. Had they known then what they afterwards learned--that Joseph and Hyrum Smith were at that very time out of the State, on the west side of the Mississippi river, with the intention of journeying westward and keeping out of the clutches of those who were seeking to deprive them of their liberty, and if possible of their lives also, they would have entered their solemn protest against their giving up that advantage and returning again to Illinois in the face of the murderous hatred that was so generally manifested towards them. Anson was subsequently informed by Dr. Willard Richards that Reynolds Cahoon and Alpheus Cutler had crossed the river in a boat in the afternoon of the day that they had talked with Anson Call and David Evans, and while what General Thomas had said to them, as related by the brethren to them and to the Prophet's wife, must have been still fresh in their minds, and induced Joseph and Hyrum Smith to return to Nauvoo and give themselves up to the officers who had a warrant for them (the very thing that Brothers Call and Evans had plead with them to warn the Prophet against doing.) Anson also learned from Dr. Richards that the letter they had brought from Judge Thomas was not even delivered to the Prophet.