Beverley responded "Depend upon me."

They had constructed some canoes in which to transport the weakest of
the men.

"I will take a dugout and some picked fellows. We will pull to the wood
yonder, and there we shall find some kind of game which has been forced
to shelter from the high water."

It was a cheerful view of a forlorn hope. Clark grasped the hand
extended by Beverley and they looked encouragement into each other's
eyes.

Oncle Jazon volunteered to go in the pirogue. He was ready for
anything, everything.

"I can't shoot wo'th a cent," he whined, as they took their places in
the cranky pirogue; "but I might jes' happen to kill a squir'l or a
elephant or somepin 'nother."

"Very well," shouted Clark in a loud, cheerful voice, when they had
paddled away to a considerable distance, "bring the meat to the woods
on the hill yonder," pointing to a distant island-like ridge far beyond
the creeping flood. "We'll be there ready to eat it!"

He said this for the ears of his men. They heard and answered with a
straggling but determined chorus of approval. They crossed the rolling
current of the Wabash by a tedious process of ferrying, and at last
found themselves once more wading in back-water up to their armpits,
breaking ice an inch thick as they went. It was the closing struggle to
reach the high wooded lands. Many of them fell exhausted; but their
stronger comrades lifted them, holding their heads above water, and
dragged them on.

Clark, always leading, always inspiring, was first to set foot on dry
land. He shouted triumphantly, waved his sword, and then fell to
helping the men out of the freezing flood. This accomplished, he
ordered fires built; but there was not a soldier of them all whose
hands could clasp an ax-handle, so weak and numbed with cold were they.
He was not to be baffled, however. If fire could not be had, exercise
must serve its purpose. Hastily pouring some powder into his hand he
dampened it and blacked his face. "Victory, men, victory!" he shouted,
taking off his hat and beginning to leap and dance. "Come on! We'll
have a war dance and then a feast, as soon as the meat arrives that I
have sent for. Dance! you brave lads, dance! Victory! victory!"

The strong men, understanding their Colonel's purpose, took hold of the
delicate ones; and the leaping, the capering, the tumult of voices and
the stamping of slushy moccasins with which they assaulted that stately
forest must have frighte