“There never was a rule that did not have an exception,” Roger was told. “Now and then you may find a red man who dishonors his word, but in the main they would sooner be torn to pieces than betray a trust. We shall see our horses when we come back this way, Roger, if we are so lucky as to be able to return.”
“Then there was that news we had about those two white men who were seen by a Nez Perces hunter far down the river,” said Roger, uneasily. “They were in a canoe, and had evidently passed the village in the nighttime, unseen. At the time the Nez Perces saw them they were dickering with some of the Flat Heads, as though meaning to make allies of those fighters.”
“It sounds as if we might be in for another lot of trouble, before we reach the end of our voyage,” admitted Dick.
“Then you agree with me, Dick, that those two men must be our bitter foes, François Lascelles and Andrew Waller?”
“Yes, I’m sorry to say they must be those men and no others. But, Roger, something seems to tell me that we may not be bothered much longer by their dark plotting. They are apt to overdo the matter, and perhaps be slain by the very power they set in motion to destroy us.”
“You mean the fighting Flat Heads may turn on them, sooner or later; is that it, Dick?” asked Roger, eagerly.
“That is a fate which has overtaken many such schemers,” came the answer. “Unscrupulous men often start fires that, in the end, consume them. My father has told me that many a time. We have been preserved through all our adventures, and for one I can face the future without flinching. I do not believe it will be our fate to die at the hands of such rascals as those men are.”
It was on the following day after this talk between the two chums that, all preparations having been completed, the little party embarked for the last lap of their long trip, which in the case of Captain Lewis meant from coast to coast.
The friendly Nez Perces gave them a good send-off. There were even some whoops, and waving of hands, after the whites had pushed off from the shore.