cluded to turn back down the river, and on July
26th--which is the day Gass and Ordway finished their portage at the
Great Falls--they headed southeast for the mouth of the Marias, trusting
to Providence they would meet their men there and that they would
eventually meet Clark at the mouth of the Yellowstone.

"Now when you come to make all these things tally out on the ground, it
is quite a proposition, isn't it?"

The boys all looked at him with open eyes, as they followed out on the
map the widely separated journeys of the two great chiefs.

"Very well," resumed Uncle Dick, "they got down a mile below Badger
Creek, on the Two Medicine River. Now they had the one and only
dangerous encounter with the Indians which any of them met throughout
the whole two years' trip. It was at that time hostility of the
Blackfeet against the whites began. They ran into a bunch of Indians.
There were eight of them, who turned out to be the Minnetarees of the
North, whom they knew to be one of the most dangerous bands of all that
neighborhood.

"It seemed best to make friends, so they camped with the Indians that
night and slept in their tents. Toward morning the Indians made their
break--seized the guns of all four of the men and started out to steal
the horses.

"J. Fields and his brother started out after one Indian with the rifles.
The fellow hung on to them, and R. Fields stabbed the Indian, killing
him on the spot. This uproar woke up Drewyer and Lewis, who were in the
tepee. Drewyer and Lewis got possession of their rifles. Lewis called to
the Indians to stop running off his horses. These savages showed fight,
and Lewis shot one of them through the body, which accounted for two of
the savages in a few moments.

"In a very little time longer the four white men had all their camp
outfit and four horses belonging to the Indians, although they had lost
one of their own horses. They had met their first Indian fight, and got
out of it rather well.

"Now followed what I suppose was one of the fastest rides ever made on
the Western prairies. Lewis and his men mounted and started hot-foot for
the mouth of the Marias River. To make the story of it, at least, short,
they rode about one hundred and twenty miles in a little over
twenty-four hours.

"We have seen that Gass, Ordway, and the other men were coming down from
the Falls with the boats. As a matter of fact, they had just rounded the
bend, approaching the place where old For