seen, and that made matters worse. Where was the other white chief? Of course, we'd calkilated you fellows might be slow, 'cause of the rapids, but we'd hoped.
"Now we gave over our guns, and the cap'n told the chief to have us shot if there was any ambush. We were terrible afraid the whole pack of Injuns'd skip and leave us stranded without hosses, or guns either. The cap'n sent Drouillard and an Injun down to the forks, to get a note that had been stuck on a pole there, for Captain Clark. They brought back the note, and the cap'n pretended it was a note put there by the other white chief, sayin' he was comin', but had been delayed. The cap'n wrote another note, by light of a brush fire, telling Captain Clark to hurry. Drouillard and an Injun were to take it down river in the morning.
"That night the Snakes hid out, all 'round us, in the brush, for fear of a trap, while the chief and four or five warriors bunked close beside us. Our scalps felt mighty loose on our heads—and the mosquitoes were powerful bad, too, so we none of us slept much. The cap'n was pretty near crazy. It was touch-and-go, how things'd turn out. The Snakes were liable to skeedaddle, the whole pack of 'em, and carry us off with 'em. The only reason they were stayin' now, was that Drouillard had told 'em we had one of their women in the main party, and a big black medicine man."
"Hoo! Dat am me," asserted York, proudly. "Dis eckspedishun can't get 'long wiffout Yawk."
