how he made all those things work together, and how he used his
brains and his reason all the way across. Even about his pet portable
boat, he didn't sit down and cry. He did the next thing."

"And proceeded on!"

"And proceeded on, yes."

"Well," concluded Jesse, "even if my eagle and my island are gone, I
suppose I'll have to admit that this place is the real portage. They saw
the Rockies right along now. They threw those canoes into the high,
too!"

"Tracking and poling, pretty soon now, and a fine daily average," nodded
Rob. "And now I don't suppose that we need just feel that we've funked
anything by not sticking to our boat all the time, and taking a pack
train here; because Clark or Lewis, or both of them, and a good many of
the men, walked a lot of the time from here, hunting and scouting and
figuring on ahead."

"That's so!" said Jesse. "Where were their horses all the time?"

"None above the Mandans," said Rob; "maybe not that far. They started
with two, and picked up one, and one died--that's the record up to the
Sioux. But beyond the Mandans they hoofed it, or poled and paddled and
pulled. They couldn't sail the canoes--they gave that up. And now both
their perogues were left behind. So when they left the old eagle on his
broken tree, and the savage white bears all along here, and the
rattlesnakes and everything else that tried to stop them here, they
drew their belts in and threw her in the high--that's right, Jess."

"And speaking of the portage," he continued, "Uncle Dick told me to get
a wagon and follow down as close as we could to our camp and get our
stuff all up to a place above the White Bear Islands, and go into camp
there until he came in with Billy Williams and the pack horses, from his
ranch on the Gallatin, near the Forks. So that's a day's work, even with
a flivver--which I think we'll use part way. Time we set out and
proceeded on, fellows."

They turned away from the Great Falls of the ancient river, in part with
a feeling of sadness. Jesse waved his hand toward the Black Eagle Falls.

"The only thing is----" said he.

The others knew Jesse was wishing for the wild days back again.

CHAPTER XX

READY FOR THE RIVER HEAD

The young explorers, used as they were to outdoor life, had no
difficulty in getting their outfit up a long coulee to the level of the
prairie, where a small car quickly carried them into and beyond the city
to a point where another gradual descent le