"What good would that do us?" demanded John. "A boat twenty or thirty miles east of here across the mountains isn't going to help us very much. What we want is a boat now, and I don't see how we can get along without it. Won't they sell their canoe?"
"No, they don't want to sell it," said Alex; "they say they're under employment, and must get through to the camp from Hudson's Hope on time. We couldn't portage a dugout, anyhow. But they say that we can go on up there with them if we like, and then come back and go around by the portage. What do you say, Mr. Rob?"
Rob answered really by his silence and his tight-shut jaw. "Well," said he, "at least I don't much care about turning back on a trail. But we'll have to split here, I think, unless we all go into camp. But part of us can go on through by the river, and the rest come on later. Maybe we can _cache_ some of our luggage here, and have it brought on across by these men, if they're going back to Hudson's Hope."
"That sounds reasonable," said Alex, nodding. "I believe we can work it out."
He turned and spoke rapidly in Cree to the two travelers, with many gestures, pointing both up and down the stream, all of them talking eagerly and at times vehemently.
"They say," said Alex at last, "there's a place at the foot of the high bank above the cañon head where two or three men might be able to get a boat up to the carrying trail, although the landing is little used to-day. But they say if we could get across to the east end of the cañon they could send men down by the trail after that other boat. They don't think we can get our boat across. They say they'll find us in a few days, they think, somewhere on the portage. They ask us if they can have what's left of our canoe. They say they'll take two dollars a day and grub if we want them to work for us. They don't say that no man could make the portage below here, but don't think we could do it with our crew. Well, what do you say now, Mr. Rob?"
"Why, it's all as easy as a fiddle-string," said Rob. "I'll tell you how we'll fix it. Jess, you and Moise go with these men on up to the surveyors' camp, and back down to Hudson's Hope--you can take enough grub to last you around, and you know that water is easy now. Alex and John and I will still have enough grub to last us through to the east side of the Rockies--we're almost through now. It might be rather hard work for Jess. The best way for him is to keep with Moise, who'll take good care of him, and it's more fun to travel than to loaf in camp. For the rest of us, I say we ought to go through, because we started to go through. We all know where we are now. Moise will bring the men and supplies around to meet us at the east side. Even if we didn't meet," he said to Jesse, "and if you and Moise got left alone, it would be perfectly simple for you to go on through to Peace River Landing, two or three hundred miles, to where you will get word of Uncle Dick. There are wagon-trails and steamboats and all sorts of things when you once get east of the mountains, so there's no danger at all. In fact, our trip is almost done right where we stand here--the hardest part is behind us. Now, Jess, if you don't feel hard about being asked to go back up the river, or to stay here till these men come back down-stream, that's the way it seems best to me."