CHAPTER XXI
AT THE FOOT OF THE ROCKIES
“The time is coming, and very soon at that, I guess, Dick, when we must expect a great change in our going.”
Roger made this remark some two weeks after their adventure with the rascally Dacotahs, who had been misled by the false words of Andrew Waller. All this while the whites had been steadfastly pushing farther and farther up the narrowing Missouri, until navigation had become very difficult.
“Yes, I know what you mean by that,” remarked Dick. “Every day now we are having more and more trouble with the batteaux. They get aground so often that much valuable time is wasted in freeing them.”
“It looks as if we might be nearly at the headwaters of the Missouri, the river is getting so shallow,” Roger observed.
“That is probably partly due to the time of year,” explained Dick. “We are well along in August, you must remember, and the snow doesn’t melt as easily up in the mountain canyons now as it did earlier in the season. Besides, we have had little heavy rain, if you stop to think.”
“What do you expect Captain Lewis will do, Dick?”
“I heard him saying only to-day, when they were working at the boat which stuck on the shoal, that it looked as though the limit had been reached. You understand what that means, of course, Roger?”