her source of the Missouri--and try out the grayling. We
are now on the only grayling waters left in the West. All the heads of
the Missouri used to have them. I thought you all might like to have a
go at that. I can promise you good sport. We can have a tent and cook
outfit brought down on my car from the ranch."

"Well, that looks like a time saver, sure," said John. "We finish things
faster than Lewis and Clark, don't we?"

"Sure. Well, when you feel you have to start back east we can jump in
the car and run back up north to my ranch, up the Gallatin. You can
follow Sleepy over to Bozeman and Livingston, then; or you can go east
by rail down the Yellowstone; or you can divide your party and part go
by rail down the river to Great Falls, and meet at the Mandan villages,
or somewhere. We can plan that out later if you like.

"But in this way you cover all that big sweep of country where the arm
of the Continental Divide bends south and holds all these hundreds of
streams around the Three Forks and below. We'd be skirting the rim of
that great bend in the mountains, a sort of circle of something like two
hundred miles across; and we'd be coming back to the old river again at
the Forks. Looks to me that's about the quickest way we can cover our
trip and the way to get the fullest idea of the real river."

"What do you vote, fellows?" asked their leader. "This looks like a very
well-laid-out campaign, to me."

"So say we all of us!" answered Rob.

"That's right," added John and Jesse.

"All right, then," nodded Billy. "On our way! Roll them beds. Keep out
your fishing tackle. I'll stop in town and telephone to Andy Sawyer to
come on down to the livery at Red Rock and pick up our stock there, so
we won't lose any time getting the train."

This well-thought-out plan worked so well that nothing of special
interest happened in their steady ride down to the railroad, out of the
historic cove, in among the fields and houses of the later land.

And to make quite as brief the story of their uneventful journey across
the wide and treeless region below, it may be said that on the evening
of the next day they pulled in at the little log-cabin hotel of Mrs.
Culver, the first woman who ever saw the head of the true Missouri.

That lady, quaint and small, came out and made them welcome. "I've three
beds, in two rooms," said she, "and you'll have to double up, but I can
feed you all, I guess."

"Is there any fishing?" asked