Now the only food left was some soup and bear-oil. Everybody was feeling weak and miserable. But once the men started a cheer, for they glimpsed, distant before, through a gap, a large broad valley or plain—perhaps the end of the mountains and perhaps the country of the Nez Percés or Pierced Noses. Then the mountains closed again and the valley was swallowed up.
On the third day, about ten o'clock, another shout was given. To a tree beside the trail (the trees were getting larger, showing that the trail was leading downward), in a little draw was hanging the carcass of a horse; and to it was pinned by a splinter a note from Captain Clark:
I am going on to some plains to the southwest.
Will find Indians and collect provisions for you.
W. C.
Sturdy Captain Clark, the Red Head chief! He could always be depended upon. Captain Lewis's thin face brightened under his tattered hat.
"Load the meat, lads," he ordered. "We'll have a rousing dinner, this day."
Ah, but at noon that horse tasted good, after soup and bear-oil! The head was cut off and tossed aside; then with their knives everyone slashed off thick steaks and roasted them on ramrods, over the fires. Peter got his share.
However, just as the march was about to proceed,
