“How long have you been here?” inquired the young trapper. “I don’t know. It seems like many years.” “Do you like it here?” “Do I like it? I wish I was dead.” Reuben’s face was glowing with a more tender expression than had been seen upon it in many a day. “We’ll try to arrange it so that you won’t have to stay here much longer,” he said. “What do you mean?” demanded his father so eagerly that Reuben’s heart smote him again. “I mean that I am your son and that I have come here to make arrangements to take you out of this place.” Abruptly, and to Reuben’s intense surprise, his father suddenly buried his face in his hands and cried and sobbed as a little child might have done. It was long before Reuben could comfort him, but when at last the sightless old man was convinced that Reuben had in reality returned and that he was able to provide for his wants in his declining years, the countenance of William Benton was lighter than it had been for many days. Nor was Reuben disappointed. In a brief time he was able to obtain the release of his father and also to purchase a little house in which they both might live. Reuben’s share in the furs which had been secured, as we know, had brought him no small amount of money, and through the influence of Kit Carson he had been able to save most of that which he had received. Because of this he was now able to provide for his father, and there was no hesitation on the part of the young trapper in deciding to remain at Pain Court, or St. Louis, as the place now was commonly called. With Kit Carson, however, the case was radically different. He had not found any trace of his own family, and when a few days had elapsed his stay in St. Louis was ended. The strange sights of the life in the city and the activities of the busy city people were all interesting, but as Kit explained to Reuben, he wanted to be where there weren’t so many others, where there wasn’t so much noise, where he could have all the air he wanted to breathe and all the sky there was to be seen. Accordingly on the first steamboat that departed westward on the Missouri River, Kit Carson was a passenger. Among those who were also on board was a man to whom Kit Carson felt drawn almost instinctively when first he discovered him. It was not long before he learned that the name of the stranger was Lieutenant John C. Fremont, who at that time was conducting a band of men to explore and survey certain regions of the great West.