He had also figured out about where the boats and the horses would bring up when the day’s toll had been taken, so that he was now making what he would have called a bee-line for that particular place.
The sun was down behind the level horizon at last, and shadows had begun to creep out of their hiding-places. Roger began to feel a little anxiety concerning their hoped-for arrival at the river.
“It seems to be further than I thought,” he ventured to say presently.
“Meaning the river, I suppose,” remarked Dick, calmly. “Yes, I expected that it would take us some little time to get there, because there was a big bend just at the place we left the water, on sighting that hill which we climbed to look around for game.”
“Dick, I believe I see something that flickers ahead of us!” exclaimed Roger just then.
“It must be the light of the fires, which as usual have been built below the river-bank, so that their glow may not betray the camp to hostile eyes. Yes, just as you say, Roger, we are getting there, and will be in on time.”
“Oh! as to that, Dick,” said the other with a laugh, “even if supper is started they will be sure to switch off and give this fresh buffalo meat the first showing. But, for one, I shall be glad to rest. After all that prancing around my tree every muscle in my legs cries out in pain, I do believe.”
They were not long in arriving at the camp, and, when the campers found what the packages that the horses carried contained, they greeted the newcomers with cheery words of welcome and of thanks.
It was a lively scene, with the boats drawn up on the sandy beach under the river-bank; the horses picketed out to graze; the tents that had been erected to serve as sleeping quarters for the company; and the blazing fires about which the cooks were starting to cook the evening meal. For a background to the picture there was the ever-murmuring river, and the boys, many a time, wished they were able to send a loving message down those hundreds of miles to the little settlement of St. Louis, where their loved ones dwelt.
They knew that a monumental task still lay before them, since the terrible, rocky mountains, of which they had heard vague stories from the Indians, had to be scaled, as well as trackless wastes of desert land crossed, before they could hope to feast their eyes on the blue sea which was their goal.