Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/185

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parties. He then had taken the doctor and Stub, and climbed to the top of the high ridge, to spy out the country lying around.

"The men should be rewarded the same as the Lewis and Clark men will be rewarded—with money and land," now the doctor said.

"A more heroic little band never wore the United States uniform," the lieutenant declared.

The doctor laughed.

"They're not wearing that, these days, lieutenant. No one would take you and them for soldiers."

Very true. About the last trace of the blue uniforms had vanished. Only the lieutenant still had blue trousers, of thin cloth, for wearing on the march. His chief's uniform, of bright shoulder-pieces and shining buttons, he kept in a trunk, until he should meet the Spaniards or the Comanches. From his red-lined cloak he had cut a cap, and sewed fox-skin to it, for the inside; the rest of the cloak had gone into socks and mittens, for himself and Stub. On his feet were buffalo-hide moccasins, on his body a capote or blanket-coat; and up to his knees his legs were wrapped in deer-hide. He looked like a chief, nevertheless.

All this was little enough, for day and night wear in cold and storm. The doctor had less. To be sure, he had made himself a fur cap, of rabbit-