In this way it was believed that they could finish within a couple of weeks, bidding good-by to the Indians, and quickly reach the States and give up their dangerous pursuits altogether, whereas, if compelled to do duty themselves as sentinels, their stay would be doubly prolonged. This arrangement suited the boy very well, who was thereby given opportunity to exercise his steam man by occasional airings over the prairies. To the east and south the plains stretched away till the horizon shut down upon them, as the sky does on the sea. To the west, some twenty odd miles distant, a range of mountains was visible, the peaks being tinged with a faint blue in the distance, while some of the more elevated looked like white conical clouds resting against the clear sky beyond. From the first, young Brainerd expressed a desire to visit these mountains. There was something in their rugged grandeur which invited a close inspection, and he proposed to the trapper that they should make a hunting excursion in that direction. 'No need of goin' so fur for game,' he replied, 'takes too much time, and thar's sure to be red-skins.' 'But if we go with the steam man we shall frighten them all away,' was the reply. 'Yas,' laughed Baldy, 'and we'll skear the game away too.' 'But we can overtake that as we did the poor Indian the other day.' 'Not if he takes to the mountains. Leastways yer isn't him that would like to undertake to ride up the mountain behind that old gintle-man.' 'Nor I either, but we can leave the wagon when we get to the base of the mountain.' 'And give the reds time to come down and run off with yer whole team.' 'Do you think there is danger of that?' 'Dunno as thar be, but ef they catched sight of yourself, they'd raise yer ha'r quicker'n lightning.' Seeing that the little fellow was considerably discouraged, Baldy hastened to add: 'Ef you're keerful, younker, and I b'lieve yer generally be, take a ride thar yerself, behind yer jumping-jack, but remember my advice and stick to yer wagon.' Having thus obtained permission of the hunter, Johnny Brainerd, as may well be supposed, did not wait long before availing himself of his privilege. The weather, which had been threatening toward the latter part of the day, entirely cleared away, and the next morning dawned remarkably clear and beautiful. So the boy announced his intention of making the expected visit, after which, he promised to devote himself entirely to performing the duty of sentinel. 'Abeout what time may we look for you, neow!' asked Ethan, as he was on the point of starting. 'Sometime this afternoon.' 'Come in before dark, as me mither used to observe to meself, when I wint out shparkin',' added Mickey.