up this time, and the
best I hoped for was to find your bodies. Instead of that, here you are,
hardly out of sight of camp, perched on the top of a wagon, as chipper
as a couple of sparrows after a rainstorm."

"Where is camp?" inquired Glen, who was now wading easily along beside
the other's horse.

"Just around that farther bend, up there."

"What made it come so far down the river, and off the road?"

"It hasn't. It's right at the ford, where we crossed last night."

"But I thought that was at least ten miles from here."

"Ten miles! Why, my son, you must have imagined you were travelling on a
four-wheeled steamboat all night, instead of an old water-logged prairie
schooner. We are not, at this minute, quite a mile from the place where
you started on your cruise."

It was hard for the boys to realize the truth of this statement; but so
it was; and, during those tedious hours of darkness they had only
travelled rods instead of miles, as they had fancied.

After the short delay necessary to recover the boys' clothing from the
wagon, they were triumphantly borne back to camp by the rescuing-party.
There the enthusiasm with which they were received was only equalled by
the amazement of those who crowded about them and listened to the
account of their adventure.

By means of a double team of mules, and some stout ropes, even the wagon
on which they had made their curious voyage was recovered, and found to
be still serviceable, though the greater part of its load was ruined.

The river was still an impassable stream, as wide as the Mississippi at
St. Louis, and was many feet deep over the place, on its farther side,
where they had camped at sunset. Thus there was no danger of another
attack from Indians. Two hours after sunrise the explorers were again
wending their way westward, rejoicing over their double escape, and over
the recovery of the two members who had been given up as lost.

Chapter XXVI.

RUNNING THE LINE.

After this day and night, crowded so full of incident, four days of
steady travel brought General Lyle's expedition to a point close to the
boundary-line between Kansas and Colorado, where their surveys were to
begin. The last hundred miles of their journey had been through a region
studded with curious masses of sandstone. These were scattered far and
wide over the Plains, and rose to a height of from one hundred to three
hundred feet, resembling towers, monuments, castles, and ruin