laughed Freegift Stout, when the lieutenant and the doctor had gone into their tent, for a rubdown.
"B'gorry, we been tellin' 'em that the Red River was surely hereabouts," asserted Tom Dougherty. "Wan spring, an' then another, an' then a crick, an' then the river itself—an' nixt, out o' the mountains we'll be an' wid iv'ry mile gettin' closer to war-rmth an' people."
"What do you want o' people?" Corporal Jerry demanded. "They may be the Spanish, or the Pawnees again, or worse."
"Come wan, come all," Tom retorted. "Sure, I wouldn't object to a bit of a fight, for a change, man to man. But fightin' these mountains is up-hill work." And he laughed at his joke.
"Well, I hope with all my heart the cap'n's struck the right trail," said Sergeant Meek. "And he's pretty certain, or he wouldn't have said so much. He's no man to make a brag, as you know. For the first time since we entered the mountains he's looking sort o' content. He deserves a turn o' luck. 'Tis always of his country he's thinking, and of us, and never of himself; and though in matter of muscle he's the smallest man amongst us, he picks the hardest jobs."
In the morning the snow was falling faster than ever. They all were anxious to reach the river, but
