"About three miles, straight across."
"If I could make it, could I stay there a little while?"
"Stay a year, if you want to. We'll pack you over, if you'll go. Can you ride?"
"All right," said the general. "I'll do it. Now, you fellows, listen. Major Henry, I turn the command and the message over to you. I'm no good; I can't travel and we've spent a lot of time already, and I'd be only a drag. So I'll drop out and go over to that cabin, and you other Scouts take the message."
Oh, we didn't want to do that! Leave the general? Never!
"No, sir, we'll take you along if we have to carry you on our backs," we said; and we started in, all to talk at once. But he made us quit.
"Say, do I have to sit here all night while you chew the rag?" grumbled the beaver man. But we didn't pay attention to him.
"It doesn't matter about me, whether I go or not, as long as we get that message through," answered the general, to us. "I can't travel, and I'd only hold you back and delay things. I'll quit, and the rest of you hustle and make up for lost time."
"I'll stay with you. This is Scout custom: two by two," spoke up little Jed Smith. He was the general's mate.
"Nobody stays with me. You all go right on under Corporal Henry."