“No. Fold up your maps and close your journals for a while, here at our last camp on the greatest trail a river ever laid.
“We’re going fishing now, fellows—to-morrow we start east, gaining two years on Lewis and Clark. When we get down near the Yellowstone and Great Falls country again, going east ourselves, we’ll just finish up the story of the map till we reach the Mandans—which is where we left our own good ship Adventurer.
“To-morrow we head south, the other way. ‘This story is to be continued in our next,’ as the story papers say.
“Good night. Keep all this in your heads. It is a great story of great men in a great valley, doing the first exploring of the greatest country in the world—the land that is drained by the Missouri and its streams!
“Good luck, old tops!” he added, as he rose and stepped to the edge of the circle of light, waving his hand to the Divide above them. He stood looking toward the west.
“Whom are you speaking to, Uncle Dick?” asked John, as he heard no answer.
“I was just speaking to my friends, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark. Didn’t you see them pass our camp just now?”