“Yes, sir, as sure as I can be,” was the reply. “We have taken pains to keep our bearings, and I am certain that if we have no bad luck, we shall be in Bolton in less than three days. We shall travel as nearly south-east as we can to get there, too.”
“Well, we have concluded to trust ourselves to you. Bring on the wagons, boys.”
“You’ll never see the Fort,” said Zack, whose rage was so great that he could scarcely make himself understood.
None of the emigrants made any reply. The women and children were assisted into the wagons, and the drivers climbed to their seats and drove after Eugene and Featherweight, who rode off over the prairie. Archie had some difficulty in mounting his steed, for the animal persisted in keeping his head toward him, and it was only after repeated efforts that the boy managed to seize the horn of the saddle and swung himself upon the horse’s back. Even after he got there the animal did not seem disposed to permit him to remain, for he straightway began to kick and plunge furiously. But Archie had not lived among the Rancheros of California for nothing. By thrusting the long rowels of his Mexican spurs through the hair-girth with which his saddle was strapped to the horse’s back, he was able to keep a secure seat in spite of the furious efforts made to dislodge him; and when at last his nag was wearied with his fruitless struggles, he urged him into a lope, and in a few seconds drew up beside his friends at the head of the wagon-train.
CHAPTER II.
WHAT ARCHIE KNEW ABOUT MONEY.
The gray-headed man before spoken of, whom the boys had put down as the father of one of the two stalwart young men who were driving the wagons, was riding Archie’s old horse, which Eugene had offered him, and was talking earnestly with Fred and his companion. It was plain that the subject of their conversation was either an exciting or an alarming one, for the old man’s face was as white as a sheet, and his voice trembled when he addressed Archie.
“Do you think those men were wilfully misleading us, or that they were lost like ourselves?” he asked.
“They certainly were not lost,” answered Archie. “Men of their stamp don’t get lost on the prairies.”