“That must mean ‘friend,’” mused the lieutenant. “‘Melo’ for friend; ‘tah-ve’ for snow; we know two words, anyway.”
“Yes, he says he’ll go, if we give him enough,” announced Kit, after a talk with the young man.
“Tell him we’ll give him blankets and scarlet cloth and beads and moccasins and leggins, and more. He’ll be rich,” quoth the lieutenant.
The young man seemed satisfied; but to make certain of him the lieutenant kept him and two others in the headquarters lodge, that night—with Kit lying just within, across the doorway. And before they all went to sleep, [Kit and the lieutenant showed the three, by signs, how from the rifles and carbines could speed a bullet and bore them through and through].
All the night raged a snow-storm. In the morning the prospect was not very inviting, but Lieutenant Frémont made a short address. Lean and bronzed, hair and beard untrimmed, buckskin suit stained and patched, he stood slender, erect, undaunted, his voice sounding with clear emphasis.
“To-day, my men, we rest and make ready,” he said. “To-morrow we cross. We might as well do it now, as at any time. It is our best chance. To go back to the lake, among savages of whom we know naught, would be folly; to go on southward, seeking some better passage, would be folly. Here we are; there are the mountains; just on the other side is the Valley of the Sacramento. It can’t be more than a hundred miles. We’ve all heard Kit tell of the beautiful Valley of the Sacramento, with its rich pastures and its fat game, where there is no winter. Only that hundred miles away is summer, men. Think of it! Who would stay here, on this side, in winter! My instruments tell me (and you know they do not lie) that directly west from us, and less than one hundred miles—in fact, about seventy—is the settlement of Captain Sutter: that Swiss-American who went down into California from Oregon in Thirty-nine, and has founded a post and a farm in the Valley of the Sacramento. He’s a Missourian, too, and he’ll be glad to see us. Why, I’ll wager that from the top of the divide, yonder, we can see into the very valley. One strong effort, lads—one more strong effort, and we’ll be in the midst of plenty. Will you follow the guide?”
“Hooray!” they cheered. “Hooray for the Sacramento and summer doings!”