“She’s right hard to shake, up in here,” rejoined Billy. “Off to the right is the N.P., heading for Butte, up the Pipestone. We couldn’t shake the left-hand branch of her this side of Twin Bridges, and that’s above the Beaverhead Rock. From there upstream to Dillon, along the Beaverhead River, there isn’t any railroad. We can swing wide, except where she cañons up on us, and may be get away from the whistles. Only, if we go as far as Dillon, we hit the O.S.L. She runs south, down the Red Rock, which is the real Missouri River. And she runs up the Big Hole, which the Journal calls the Wisdom River. And there’s a railroad up Philosophy Creek, too——”
“And up all the cardinal virtues!” exclaimed Uncle Dick. “I don’t blame the boys for getting peeved. Now, we don’t care for cañon scenery so much, nor for willow flats with no beaver in them. I would like the boys to see the Beaverhead Rock and get a general notion of how many of these confusing little creeks there were that had to be worked out.
“I’d like them, too, to get a general idea of the old gold fields. We’re right in the heart of those tremendous placers that Lewis and Clark never dreamed about. I’d like them to know, on the ground, not on the map, how the old road agents’ trail ran, between Bannack and Virginia City. I’d like them to get a true idea of how Lewis and Clark worked out their way, over the Divide. Lastly, I’d like them to see where the true Missouri heads south and leaves the real Lewis and Clark trail.
“Now, what’s the best point to head for, Billy, for a sort of central camp? I don’t think we can do more than go to the summit, this trip. What do you say?”
“Well, sir, I’d say the Shoshoni Cove, where they left their canoes and took horses, would be about the most central point for that. That’ll bring us to the last forks—what they call the Two Forks.”
“But how about the Beaverhead Rock?”
“We ought to see that,” said Rob, at the time. “That’s as famous as a landmark as almost anything on the whole river.”
“We can get in there easy enough and get out,” said Billy. “It’s just a question of time on the trail. Taking it easy, give us a week, ten days, on the way to the Cove, taking in the Rock for one camp. It’s not half as far by land as it is by water.”
“What do you say, boys? Shall we travel by rail or pack train now?”
With one shout they all voted for the pack train. “We couldn’t get along without Billy now, anyhow,” said Jesse, “because he knows the Journal as well as we do, and he knows the country better.”