they had left the valley and the spring behind, and in a narrow pass of the next ridge had come upon another spring and another stream, larger. Among so many springs and streams, who might tell which was the source of the Red River?
They followed the stream part way through the pass, and encamped there in a snowstorm. The snow, sifting thickly, shut off the view before; it was glum weather for a hungry camp; the men crouched close, snow-covered, around the fire, or moved hobbling, at their various jobs; the gaunt, sore-backed horses cropped desperately, pawing into the snow, or hunched, coughing and groaning, in the scant shelter of the low cedars and spruces.
The horses of the lieutenant and the doctor, and Stub's yellow pony, had been turned into pack animals, to lessen the loads of the other animals. Everybody was marching on foot.
"Did you say that the cap'n an' the doctor thought likely we'd have to go cl'ar back south'ard, fur as the Great White Mountains yonder, so's to strike the river?" John Sparks asked, of Stub.
"Mebbe there, mebbe sooner," Stub nodded.
"If we ketch 'em, I hope he won't be axin' us to climb 'em," spoke John Brown.
"Got to ketch 'em, first," laughed somebody.
