“Why,” said Jack, “I’m ready, and I don’t see why we can’t go off right away.”
“Well,” said Hugh, “the sooner we get off the better it will suit me, and if you feel like it, we’ll get hold of Joe to-morrow and pack up our stuff and start. I reckon we can have a good time up at the lakes hunting around there. You see, nobody’s ever been up to the heads of any of those rivers, and I’d like to go up there and see what there is, and I reckon you would, too.”
“Sure, I would,” said Jack.
“All right,” said Hugh, “let’s get hold of Joe to-morrow, and maybe we’ll start the next day. I don’t think there’s anything to keep us here.”
CHAPTER V
OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS
WHEN Joe appeared early the next morning he was at once sent off to get the horses. Jack went with him, and an hour or two later the wagon, two saddle horses, and three loose animals were standing in front of the trading store. Beds, provisions, pack saddles, and a tent were soon loaded into the wagon, and before very long the party pulled out across Badger Creek, above the stockade, and climbed the hills toward the north. Hugh and Joe rode in the wagon, while Jack drove the loose horses ahead of it. For some distance there was a road which was partly wagon road and partly old travois trail, but gradually the track became more and more dim, and soon Jack found himself riding over the unmarked prairie. Before this, however, they crossed Two Medicine Lodge River, just below Old Red Eagle’s camp, and climbed the high hill on the other side and saw before them the wide, undulating prairie and pinnacled mountains to the northwest. After reaching substantially level ground Jack pulled up, and when the wagon overtook him asked Joe, “Which way do we go from here on, Joe?”
“Well,” said Joe, “keep pretty well off to your left, riding pretty nearly straight for that pointed mountain that you see over there, the one away to the left of Chief Mountain.”
“Oh,” asked Jack, “is that Chief Mountain that we see sticking up there like a finger off to the north?”
“Yes,” said Joe, “that’s it, the last mountain to the right. But you want to keep off to the left, and in three or four hours you’ll come to a big wide valley with a good-sized river running through it. I reckon we’d better camp there, hadn’t we, White Bull?” he asked, turning to Hugh.
“Yes,” said Hugh, “that’s a good place. We can’t get on as far as Milk River to-night; in fact, we’ll do well if we get up to the head of it to-morrow.”