He turned to Dick and his cousin to say:
“I am sorry indeed that this new trouble has befallen you, my lads, but throughout your long journey you have shown such fortitude, and such determination to succeed, that I feel sure you will not be downhearted now.”
“Thank you, sir,” replied Dick, for Roger could not say a word, since a lump in his throat seemed to be choking him. “We have been brought up by fathers who never knew what it was to despair. I was just wondering whether François Lascelles would immediately destroy that document, and then go on his way, resting under the belief that he had ruined all our work of months. He may have forgotten one thing, which is that Jasper Williams still lives, and can duplicate his signature, with both of you for witnesses.”
“Just what I was about to say,” declared the soldier, with a smile of satisfaction, “and it pleases me to know that you have hit upon the same idea. Yes, while this Lascelles may think he has won his fight, the battle is never over until the last trump has sounded. When you again secure the signature you require, we will see to it that another messenger is dispatched to your home bearing it.”
Roger managed to find his voice then.
“But how are we going to reach Jasper Williams,” he asked, anxiously, “when he has gone off to find that wonderful valley where the game is so plentiful, but which the Indians are afraid to visit on account of the spirits that guard it?”
The two captains exchanged glances. They realized that difficulties indeed lay in the way of accomplishing the plan they had so cheerfully laid out.
“He may come back in a week or two, he told me,” Dick explained, “and then again it is possible, if his companions agree, and the place suits them, that they may not return until late in the winter.”
“And it would be too late then to get the paper to our people at home,” sighed Roger, looking exceedingly downcast.
“I think I voice your sentiments as well as my own, Captain Clark,” said the private secretary to the President, “when I make this suggestion. We can place one of our trusty hunters in charge of these lads, and send them off to try to find Jasper Williams and his party, whose general direction we already know.”