"Hold on," said Dick, laying a hand on his cousin's arm. "I hardly think it can be as bad as that. At the worst I think we'll learn that he has gone out again to scout around. They say he can't keep quiet for an hour; I guess he's built on the same plan as you are, Roger. But here's the captain." "Too bad, my lads," observed Captain Lewis, as he came up to them; "but your patience will have to hold out a few more days, it seems." "Jasper Williams--is he away, then?" asked Roger. "Yes," answered the commander, "he did not expect us to get up here so soon, it seems; and, only three days ago, started out on another wide detour, to find what the hostile Sioux were doing; for we've had more or less trouble with them at times. He may not be back for a week or so." "Of course we're disappointed," said Dick, bravely hiding his chagrin, "but I guess we'll have to stand it, and wait for him to come in." "There may be some way of reaching him and letting him know that we are here in the Mandan village, where we have met with a warm welcome," the captain went on. "In what way, may I ask, sir?" questioned Dick, eagerly. "I understand that Williams left word with our friend, the Mandan chief here, that he would swing around in a few days to a certain salt-lick; and that, if the other wished to send him out any word, he could have a brave meet him there." "Oh! perhaps we might go with that messenger!" exclaimed Roger, immediately. "It might be so arranged, I suppose," the captain observed, smiling at the eagerness exhibited by the boy, which he could easily understand. These lads had quite won his heart in the days they had spent with the explorers. "When would he be going out to find Jasper Williams?" asked Dick, himself just as anxious as Roger, to hasten the meeting with the man who held the fate of their homes in his hand. "Some time to-morrow, the chief promised me," came the reply. "And is this salt-lick far away from here?" continued Dick; not that he and his cousin were anxious to set eyes on it, except that it marked the meeting-place with the scout, for they knew what a salt-lick was like, and had often heard their fathers tell of the wild animals they used to shoot, far back in Kentucky and Ohio, when they came to partake of the much-prized salt to be found at one of these places. (Note 6.) "Not more than a day's journey, I understand, so that you could easily get to it before night, if you started early," Captain Lewis went on. "We will in all probability remain where we are for a long time, perhaps throughout the winter, so that all these matters can be easily arranged; only I appreciate how anxious you must be to find Williams. Please yourselves, my lads; I am ready to do almost anything for you."