“What if we run on to an Indian village, because we are now in the country of the Shoshones, you know?” Roger remarked.
“Then we’ll just wait for night,” replied the other, quietly, “and pass the wigwams by as close as we dare; for I would not want to make too wide a circuit. And now let us make a fresh start.”
This had been on the previous day to the one on which we again find the undaunted lads pushing directly into the north, bent on finding the river again.
Once more had the character of the country changed. The prairie had given place to rolling land, where grew stretches of trees. In the distance they could even see low elevations that might be called hills. Roger had been looking eagerly toward these, and hoping that they would re-discover the Missouri among them. Now that the river was lost it seemed to have additional value in the eyes of the two boys; and it was certain that they would welcome the first glimpse of its swiftly flowing waters with delight—at least Roger felt sure he would.
The sun was getting rather low in the heavens again, and once more they would soon have to be looking for some place to pitch their camp; but it was not so serious a matter when surrounded by a forest, where wood was in abundance, and numerous chances for hiding a cooking fire abounded.
Truth to tell, both boys always felt more at home when in the woods. They had been accustomed to seeing trees all around them; and those apparently endless level prairies, where not a stick of timber could be seen as far as their eyes traveled, rather appalled them, and made them feel almost helpless. One had to grow accustomed to these vast solitudes, and the monotony of that waving sea of grass, before he could feel at home.
“Keep your eyes well about you as we ride on, Roger,” Dick warned, not in a way to create alarm in the mind of his companion, but as though he wished to remind him that their policy was always to be prepared for emergencies, and never to be caught off their guard.
“You haven’t seen any sign of Indians around, I hope?” asked Roger, suspiciously.
“No, I’m glad to say not; but then there are sometimes other dangers lurking in a wood like this. They have panthers out here as well as we did down near our homes. And, while such a beast may never have set eyes on white people before, I reckon he’d jump down at us just as quick as if we were red boys, if it so happened that he was hungry.”