“The story goes that some prospectors have discovered gold in the foot-hills across the big drink,” said Yank, approaching the Captain with a sort of half-military salute. “What of it?” asked the Captain, as he shook himself loose from the little group, and arose to his knees, a vague fear tugging at his heart. “What does such a discovery mean to us?” “Nothing; only the most of us are going to throw up our job and go off a-prospecting.” “What! and leave me alone in this wilderness, without teamsters, a thousand miles from nowhere, with all these women and children on my hands to starve to death or be captured by Indians?” “That’ll have to be your own lookout, I reckon. The gold fever’s as sudden as the cholera, and takes you off without warning when you get it bad.” “What’s the matter, daddie?” asked Jean. “Are you sick?” “I’m face to face with an awful difficulty, daughter. Our ox-drivers have caught the gold fever. They are all going to leave us in this wilderness but Scotty; and he’d go too, no doubt, if he weren’t crippled and helpless.” “Don’t let the desertion of your teamsters worry you,” exclaimed Sally O’Dowd. “I can drive one of the teams myself.” “What! You?” “Yes! Didn’t I tell you that you’d never be sorry if you’d let me travel in your train to Oregon?” “We can all drive oxen,” cried his three daughters, in a breath. “But who will drive for Mrs. Benson and the Little Doctor? Their teamsters have joined the stampede, and they can’t drive oxen.” “Just try us and see if we can’t,” laughed the Little Doctor. “But you have two teams, and your mother cannot drive one of them.” “I’ll make a trailer of one of the wagons, just as the freighters do in the Assiniboin country.” “Does Mrs. Benson know about this?” “Yes; we’ve talked it all over. It’s a genuine case of ‘have to,’ Captain.” “What will you do with Scotty?” “We’ve considered him! He’ll soon be on his feet again. Meanwhile, he’ll have to stay on in his hammock.” “He’s not good for anything there nor anywhere else!” said the Captain, testily. “He doesn’t know beans about driving oxen, and I doubt if he can ever learn!” “He’s great on ‘intervention’ and ‘non-intervention,’ though,” laughed Mrs. McAlpin. “He’s even greater on the Monroe Doctrine.” “Yes!” exclaimed Jean, “and you ought to hear him rave over the nation’s allegiance to Mason and Dixon’s Line. It’s on the troubles over the slavery question, which he says are looming all along the national horizon, that he comes out strong.” “He’s taught me a lot about law and equity, courts and criminals, constitutions and codes,” said Hal. “You make light of the peril of our situation because you do not comprehend its gravity,” exclaimed Captain Ranger. “We need our teamsters. Scotty is a capital theorist, but he’ll never set a river afire.” “That’s a feat you’ve never accomplished yet, daddie,” laughed Jean.