acific Northwest.

Now they were under the very shoulders of the Rockies, and, so closely
had they followed the narrative of the first exploration of the great
river, and so closely had their own journey been identified with it,
that now they were almost as eager and excited over the last stages of
the journey to the summit as though it lay before them personally, new,
unknown and untried. They hardly could wait to resume their following
out of the last entangled skein of the great narrative.

"We've caught them at last, Uncle Dick!" exclaimed Jesse, spreading out
his map on top of one of the kyacks in which Nigger had carried his load
of kitchen stuff. "We've got almost a week the start of them here. This
is August 4th, and it was August 10th when Lewis got here."

"And by that time he'd been everywhere else!" said Rob. "Let's figure
him out--tying him up with that note the beaver carried off. That beaver
certainly made a lot of trouble.

"Lewis left the note at the mouth of the Wisdom on August 4th. On August
5th Clark got there and went up the Wisdom. On August 6th, 7th, 8th and
9th, Shannon was lost up the Wisdom. On August 6th, Drewyer met Clark
coming up the Wisdom River and turned him back; and Clark sent Field up
the Wisdom after Shannon. Meantime Lewis had gone down to the junction
at the Wisdom, not meeting the boats above the junction. He met Clark,
coming back down the Wisdom with the boats. They then all went down to
the mouth of the Wisdom and camped--that's about a day's march below
where we camped, at the Beaverhead Rock.

"Then Lewis saw something had to be done. He told Clark to bring
on the boats as fast as he could. He then made up a fast-marching
party--himself, Drewyer, Shields, and McNeal--with packs of food and
Indian trading stuff; he didn't forget that part--and they four hit the
trail in the high places only, still hunting for those Indians they'd
been trying to find ever since they left the Great Falls. They were
walkers, that bunch, for they left the Wisdom early August 9th, and they
got here late on August 10th. That was going some!"

"Yes, but poor Clark didn't get up here to where we are now until August
17th, a whole week later than Lewis. And by that time Lewis had come
back down to this place where we are right now, and he was mighty glad
to meet Clark. If he hadn't, he'd have lost his Indians. You tell it
now, Billy!" concluded Jesse, breathless.

"You mean, after Captain Lewis