From long habit they were accustomed to such exercise as this, and would not have complained had the tramp kept up far into the coming night.
It was about the middle of the afternoon when Roger gave a low exclamation of delight.
“I can see the river ahead of us, Dick!” he cried, with a vein of deep satisfaction in his voice.
“Yes, I have been waiting to hear you say that, Roger, for I glimpsed it five minutes back. So you see after all we have made good time. We shall be there long before sunset.”
“I must say I am glad to know it,” Roger admitted; and then hastily added: “Not that I doubted your word a bit, but then, ‘seeing is believing,’ you know, Dick.”
“Yes, and, confident as I was myself, I am relieved to see the river glimmering in the sunlight before us,” Dick frankly admitted.
“It can hardly be more than two miles or so away from here, wouldn’t you say?” questioned Roger, always ready to have any assertion he might make backed up by the word of his chum, in whom he had such positive faith.
“About that,” the other told him, as they once more started ahead.
When finally they stood on the high bank of the river, no longer the mighty stream they knew it down near their home, and looked at the opposite shore, the sun was still more than an hour high.
“Now to find out if they have passed by, and whether we will have to keep on up the river,” said Dick, as he began to look about him.