- marked Pat. "I've no pleasant recollections of the
first trip, when we were afoot an' starvin'."
And the other men agreed with him.
On the fifth day the mountains had been crossed. On the sixth day the snow had ceased, and the head of Traveler's Rest Creek was reached. On the next day, June 30, they hastened down the creek, and soon were camped again at its mouth—the camping spot of September 11, before!
"Here we are, back in the Missouri country, boys," cheered Captain Clark. "We've been clear through to the Pacific and not lost a man!"
"An' nebber killed an Injun," added York. "But we mighty nigh had to."
"May have a fight yet," quoth George Gibson. "We ought to have met some of the Oo-tla-shoots hereabouts. The guides are afraid to go on. They claim their friends have been wiped out by the Pahkees or Blackfeet."
"Dey much 'fraid," spoke Drouillard. "Dey see de tracks of two Injuns barefoot."
As Peter himself knew, Indians who were barefoot were likely to be Indians in distress.
However, the captains did not appear to be alarmed. The news was spread that the company were to be divided. Captain Clark and party were to travel southward, along this, the east side of the mountains, get the canoes and other stuff where they had been hidden at the first meeting place with Chief Ca-me-ah-wait's
