"But won't there be any bad rapids in the mountains on that river?"
"Surely, surely! That's what the men are for, and the boats. When the water is too bad they get out and walk around it, same as you walk around a mud puddle in the street. When their men think the way is safe it's bound to be safe. Besides, you forget that though all this country is more or less new, there are Hudson Bay posts scattered all through it. When they get east of the Rockies, below Hudson's Hope and Fort St. John, they come on Dunvegan, which now is just a country town, almost. They'll meet wagon-trains of farmers going into all that country to settle. Why, I'm telling you, the only worry I have is that the boys will find it too solemn and quiet to have a good time!"
"Yes, I know about solemn and quiet things that you propose, Richard!" said his sister. "But at least"--she sighed--"since their fathers want them to live in this northern country for a time, I want my boy to grow up fit for this life. Things here aren't quite the same as they are in the States. Well--I'll ask Rob's mother, and John's."
Uncle Dick grinned. He knew his young friends would so beset their parents that eventually they would get consent for the trip he had described as so simple and easy.
And, in truth, this evening camp on the crest of the Rockies in British Columbia was the result of his negotiations.
Whether Uncle Dick told the boys everything he knew about this undertaking, or whether their mothers realized what they were doing in allowing them to go so far and into a wild region, we shall be forced to leave as an unanswered question. Certainly they started with their Uncle when he left Valdez by steamer for Vancouver. And, finishing that part of their journey which was to be made by rail, wagon, and boat, here they were, in the twilight of a remote valley at the crest of the great Rocky Mountains; near that point, indeed, properly to be called the height of land between the Arctic and the Pacific waters. Moreover, they were for the time quite alone in camp.
"Well, fellows," said Rob at last, "I suppose we'd better get some more wood together. The men'll be back before long, and we'll have to get something to eat."