"Twenty-five thousand!" laughed Sol. "I've been at Leavenworth, and Kansas City too, and every steamer from the south is loaded to the stacks. You can't see the steamers for the people! Those two cities are regular camps--streets jammed, merchants selling tons of supplies, wagons and critters hardly to be bought for love or money, and the country around white with wagons and tents of folks making ready--waiting for a start. Same way up at Council Bluffs, where the crossing is from Iowa into Nebraska to strike the Platte River Trail. In a month the Platte Trail will be so thick you can walk clear from the Missouri to the mountains on the tops of the prairie schooners. So you do well to peg along early. The rush is begun." Sol reined up his horse, preparing to leave. "Good luck to you, boys. I'll see you at the mines." "We've got one waiting for us, maybe, you know, Sol," reminded Terry. "And--" "All right," answered Harry. "We'll see you in the land of the elephant, anyway. So long." And Sol galloped south, into the darkness. CHAPTER III DUKE ON A RAMPAGE Before noon of the next day Harry, in the advance guiding Jenny and Duke, swung his hat and cheered. "Did you ever see the like!" he cried. "The rush has begun, all right." "I should say!" gasped Terry. They had arrived in sight of the town of Manhattan, just above the mouth of the Big Blue, on the Kansas River emigrant trail from the east. The prairie for half a mile around was alive with campers; the smoke from a host of dinner fires drifted upon the clear air, and a great chorus arose--shouts of men, cries of children, bawling of cows and oxen, barking of dogs. "And this is only one trail from the Missouri," said Harry. "Hurrah! Gwan, Duke, Jenny! Gwan!" As they proceeded down the valley road, for the town, presently they struck the overflow of the encampment, and began to be greeted from every side. Duke and Jenny apparently attracted much attention. "Whar you think you're goin', boys?" "Why don't you get astraddle an' ride?" "Is that a genuyine buff'lo?" "Who invented that rig?" "I'll trade you a cow for your mule, strangers." "When do you give your show?" And so forth, and so forth. Men laughed, women and children stared, dogs barked, and Shep, bristling, took refuge under the cart. To all the sallies Harry, and sometimes Terry, made good-natured reply, for this was a good-natured crowd. Many wagons besides theirs bore signs. There were several with "Pike's Peak or Bust," which evidently was popular. "To the Land of Gold" was another favorite scrawl. One wagon announced: "Mind Your Own Business." Another proclaimed: "From Pike County for Pike's Peak." And another: "We're Going to See the Elephant--Are You?"