The Sergeant Ordway party had separated from Captain Clark and party at the Three Forks, and had come on down without adventure. The captain probably was now on his way down the Yellowstone.
"An' how were Sa-ca-ja-we-a an' the little spalpeen?" asked Pat.
"Fine and hearty. The Bird-woman said she knew the way to the Yellowstone. She'd been all through that country, when the Sho-sho-nes hunted the buffalo."
When the canoes were loaded upon the carts, the horses pulled very well, for buffalo-horses; but, just as a year ago, the rain and the mud interfered, the carts broke; besides, Pat was taken ill; so that five days were required for carrying canoes and baggage around the series of falls, to the old Portage Creek camp at the lower end.
One canoe was worthless, but the others were placed in the water; so was the white pirogue; the blunderbuss or swivel cannon was unearthed and mounted in its bows, as before.
"Faith, we're gettin' all our plunder together, wance ag'in," congratulated Pat. "An' there's more of it, an' the red pirogue, remember, at the mouth o' the Maria's, where we're to meet Cap'n Lewis. Do you be takin' the canoes down, Ordway, an' Peter an' I'll ride by land with the hosses."
The mouth of the Maria's was not far—fifty miles by river, according to Pat's journal, written on the way up, but less by land. The Maria's, as Peter recalled,
