“Now, Henry’s Lake was named after Andrew Henry, who was chased south from the Three Forks by the Blackfeet. Just north of there is the low divide called Raynold’s Pass, after Captain Raynolds, a government explorer, about 1872. Suppose we kept our Monida car that far, and then sent it back home? Then I could telegraph my folks to send my own car down there from my ranch, to meet us there at the head of Henry’s Lake, say one week from now; that’ll give us time to run the river up, easy.
“Then we’d have my car to run across Targhee, to the South Fork of the Madison—another source of the Missouri—and try out the grayling. We are now on the only grayling waters left in the West. All the heads of the Missouri used to have them. I thought you all might like to have a go at that. I can promise you good sport. We can have a tent and cook outfit brought down on my car from the ranch.”
“Well, that looks like a time saver, sure,” said John. “We finish things faster than Lewis and Clark, don’t we?”
“Sure. Well, when you feel you have to start back east we can jump in the car and run back up north to my ranch, up the Gallatin. You can follow Sleepy over to Bozeman and Livingston, then; or you can go east by rail down the Yellowstone; or you can divide your party and part go by rail down the river to Great Falls, and meet at the Mandan villages, or somewhere. We can plan that out later if you like.
“But in this way you cover all that big sweep of country where the arm of the Continental Divide bends south and holds all these hundreds of streams around the Three Forks and below. We’d be skirting the rim of that great bend in the mountains, a sort of circle of something like two hundred miles across; and we’d be coming back to the old river again at the Forks. Looks to me that’s about the quickest way we can cover our trip and the way to get the fullest idea of the real river.”
“What do you vote, fellows?” asked their leader. “This looks like a very well-laid-out campaign, to me.”
“So say we all of us!” answered Rob.
“That’s right,” added John and Jesse.
“All right, then,” nodded Billy. “On our way! Roll them beds. Keep out your fishing tackle. I’ll stop in town and telephone to Andy Sawyer to come on down to the livery at Red Rock and pick up our stock there, so we won’t lose any time getting the train.”