“Can you give us any advice as to the best course?” Jack continued.
“Well, in a general way, all you’ve got to do is to keep the Tetons on your right and the Henry on your left until you come to the head-waters of the river. I’ve heard say it heads in a lake, but I never was up that far. Then you’ll have to bear a little to your left until you strike Bozeman or Virginia City or the stage-road. It’s simple enough. After you’ve crossed the Snake, here, you can head straight for the Grand Teton if you want to. If you’re hunting scenery as well as game it’s worth going out of your way to see; it’s the finest mountain in America that I know of.”
“I think we may as well do that,” replied Jack. “Eh, you fellows? Time and place are no very particular objects with us.”
To this proposition we assented; and just then I observed that the Indian woman was making signs to Tracker Jim.
“The woman says supper’s ready,” he remarked. “Come on, if you’re dried out enough.”
Gladly accepting this invitation, we marched over to the other camp, armed with our own tin plates and cups; being received by the silent Indian woman with a broad smile. A very noble supper we had that night. Two courses,—soup and meat. Uncommonly good that soup was too. It was made of the tail of a beaver; the second course consisting of the beaver itself, baked before being cleaned,—a fact we did not discover till afterwards; which was just as well, perhaps.
Our new friend having volunteered to show us the way across the dangerous ford, we followed him next morning into the river and shortly found ourselves standing in safety upon its northern bank, where, with mutual good wishes, we took leave of Tracker Jim, and turning our faces toward the east plunged into the unknown wilderness; highly delighted at the thought of how we had circumvented Squeaky, who, we had no doubt, was at that moment impatiently awaiting our appearance at the bridge below.
We had not long passed the Snake ere we discovered that we had come into a country very different from that we had hitherto been traversing. For one thing, game of all sorts became abundant. One could not ascend a hill without seeing at least one band of antelope, and more often three or four; while, as we approached the mountains, black-tail and white-tail deer began to make their appearance, elk were occasionally seen, and now and then a bear. These last, by mutual consent, we very carefully left alone; we decided that we had no right to take any risks with them.
With all this game to practise on, Percy and I soon became fairly expert hunters, and it was not long ere Jack abandoned to us entirely the fascinating duty of supplying the camp with meat.
Another particular in which the passage of the Snake had produced a great change was in the nature of the country itself. In place of the long stretches of barren sand we found rolling hills covered with luxuriant grass, intersected by deep cañons which sometimes forced us to go several miles out of our course in search of a crossing-place.