The Pioneer Boys of the Yellowstone; or, Lost in the Land of Wonders

by St. George Rathborne

The uncertainty that lay ahead seemed to appeal to the spirit of adventure that lay deep down in the hearts of the young pioneers.

“When we break camp in the spring and leave here,” Dick went on, as though he had mapped it out in his mind, “we will have to head into the Northwest, Captain Lewis told me.”

“Why go that way instead of straight into the West, or turn toward the Southwest?” Roger asked him, just as Dick knew he would be likely to do.

“It seems that the two captains have been picking up all the information they can from every source,” Dick explained; “and this, when boiled down, causes them to believe there is a better opening over the great Rocky Mountain chain up there than in any other quarter. Besides, I believe they have an idea there is a great river that flows to the sea, the headwaters of which start in the land of the Blackfeet.”

“He must have gotten some of that information from the Blackfoot prisoner the Mandans have in their strong lodge?” suggested Roger, quickly.

“I believe he did,” Dick told him. “I happen to know that both the captains and an interpreter spent many hours with the Blackfoot. And I also heard that they had promised to take the man back to his people with them in the spring; for they were giving the Mandans some presents to coax them to turn him over to them.”

“Oh! just to think, Dick, what it will mean to us, if we are with them when they first set eyes on the big water! Our parents came from the far East, where they knew the Atlantic Ocean; and, if we could only see the other, what a feather it would be in our caps when we got back home.”

Dick had accomplished his purpose, for his cousin showed his old-time enthusiasm again. So they continued to converse as they followed Mayhew, who strode along in advance, constantly on the alert for some new and startling sight, and not at all pleased with his surroundings.

It was after noon had come and gone that he uttered a cry that the boys understood as a command to halt. Each clutched his gun in the manner of those who know the value of being ready.