'Naow, that's what I call real queer,' remarked Ethan Hopkins, who was stretching his legs by walking alongside the steamer.
'And it's meself that thinks the same,' added Mickey, puffing away at his short black pipe. 'I don't understand it, as me father obsarved when they found fault with him for breaking another man's head.'
'Ef we git into trouble, all we've got ta do is to back out,' remarked Baldy, as a sort of apology for continuing his advance.
'This fellow doesn't know how to go backward,' said Johnny, 'but if it prove necessary, we can manage to turn him round.'
'All right, go ahead.'
At the same moment, the limber Yankee sprung into the wagon, and the steam man started ahead at a speed which was as fast as was prudent.
However, this delightful means of progress was brought to an unexpected standstill, by the sudden and abrupt termination of the valley. It ended completely as though it were an uncompleted canal, the valley rising so quickly to the level of the prairie, that there was no advancing any further, nor turning, nor in fact was there any possible way of extricating themselves from the difficulty, except by working the steam man around, and withdrawing by the same path that they had entered by.
'Well, here we are' remarked the boy, as they came to a standstill, 'and what is to be done?'
'Get out of it,' was the reply of Hopkins, who advanced several yards further, until he came up on the prairie again, so as to make sure of the exact contour of the ground.
'Did yer ever try to make the thing go up hill?' asked the trapper.