“No,” said Hugh, “I never have and I never heard of anybody else that has been up here. Of course, we know that the Kootenays and Stonies come up here and sometimes maybe a little party of hunting Crees, but no white men, as far as I ever heard. Along back, fifteen or twenty years ago, there was a party of white men camped below here, on Kennedy’s Creek. They were looking for gold. They found a few colors, but nothing that paid at all and, after a little while, they gave up looking for gold, and broke up into little parties, some of them going back to Benton and some hunting along the flanks of the mountains, but I don’t believe they or any other party of white men have ever been up here before.”
“Well,” said Joe, “then, of course, you don’t know what there is up this other creek that comes from the east.”
“No, I don’t,” said Hugh. “It can’t be very long, because Kennedy’s Creek must be pretty close to us, on the other side of the mountains.”
“Say, Jack,” said Joe. “Let’s take our guns and go up this creek afoot to-morrow, and see what there is there. We might see some game and, anyhow, we’ll find out where the stream come from. What do you think, White Bull, is it good?”
“Good,” said Hugh, “go on up there and see what you can find. I think maybe I’ll stop around the camp or perhaps climb up to the top of these rocks right in front of us, and see what stream it is that is on the other side. It looks like a pretty straight up and down wall in front of us, but, often, when you get close to a place like that you find that you can climb it.”
“What do you expect to see on the other side, Hugh?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know,” said Hugh, “but I reckon I’ll see more mountains. Those seem to be mostly what grows in this part of the world, but I shouldn’t be much surprised if right on the other side of that wall I saw a narrow valley, through which runs one of the forks of Belly River.”
“Won’t you find lots of snow going up there, Hugh?” said Jack.
“Some, I guess,” was the reply, “but you see this is the south face of the wall and the sun is pretty strong now and hits the rocks up there, so that I reckon most of the snow will be melted.”
“Well,” said Jack, “that will be bully. We will send out two exploring parties from the camp, and then at night both will report.”