nishes us such another example, a
communication across the continent by water will be practicable and
safe.'

"Class dismissed. I see Billy has got the horses." The boys put away
their maps and rolled their beds.

All of the party being good packers, it was not long before they had
left their camp ground on the knoll and were off upstream once more,
edging the willow flats and swinging to the ford of the Madison, which
they made with no great danger at that stage of the water. Thence they
headed back for the Jefferson fork, having by now got a good look at the
great valleys of the Three Forks.

"Which way, sir?" asked Billy now of their leader. "Shall we stop at the
real headquarters camp of the Three Forks, just about a mile up--where
the Indian girl told them she had been taken prisoner when she was a
child?"

"Too near town!" sung out Jesse, who overheard the question. "Let's
shake the railroad."

"She's right hard to shake, up in here," rejoined Billy. "Off to the
right is the N.P., heading for Butte, up the Pipestone. We couldn't
shake the left-hand branch of her this side of Twin Bridges, and that's
above the Beaverhead Rock. From there upstream to Dillon, along the
Beaverhead River, there isn't any railroad. We can swing wide, except
where she canyons up on us, and may be get away from the whistles. Only,
if we go as far as Dillon, we hit the O.S.L. She runs south, down the
Red Rock, which is the real Missouri River. And she runs up the Big
Hole, which the _Journal_ calls the Wisdom River. And there's a railroad
up Philosophy Creek, too----"

"And up all the cardinal virtues!" exclaimed Uncle Dick. "I don't blame
the boys for getting peeved. Now, we don't care for canyon scenery so
much, nor for willow flats with no beaver in them. I would like the boys
to see the Beaverhead Rock and get a general notion of how many of these
confusing little creeks there were that had to be worked out.

"I'd like them, too, to get a general idea of the old gold fields. We're
right in the heart of those tremendous placers that Lewis and Clark
never dreamed about. I'd like them to know, on the ground, not on the
map, how the old road agents' trail ran, between Bannack and Virginia
City. I'd like them to get a true idea of how Lewis and Clark worked out
their way, over the Divide. Lastly, I'd like them to see where the true
Missouri heads south and leaves the real Lewis and Clark trail.

"Now, what's the best point