"Well, what is it, Dick?" he asked, uneasily; while the mother stopped her work to glance up, and even Sam laid his trap down on the floor, and listened. "While we were sitting there on the shore, waiting for the wind to quiet down a bit, so we could take chances and cross over, Roger and I got to talking. I told him all you said to me about the shadow that has fallen on our homes here, and, father, Roger, in his impetuous way, declared that we ought to follow up the Lewis and Clark company, to find that man, Jasper Williams, and get his signature to the paper that will save our land from being taken away. And, father, as I heard Roger say that, something in me seemed to rise up and declare that such was our duty. I promised him to get you to go over to Grandfather Armstrong's cabin after supper, where we could have a council of war, and see if something could not be done to let us two go on this mission!" When Dick stopped speaking a silence fell upon them all. Father and mother exchanged quick glances, and there were tears in their eyes. CHAPTER V A GRAND PALAVER "OH! Dick, my boy, we could not let you go from us in that way!" Of course Dick had expected that his mother would say something like this; but he looked more to his father for the consent that would mean so much. The very thought was staggering to those loving hearts; but in those days boys of fifteen and sixteen were so accustomed to thinking and doing for themselves that they were fully trusted by their elders. And, besides, mothers had been brought up in the hard school of experience, thus learning early in life to look upon danger as an ever-present thing. If his father could be brought to see the desperate undertaking in the right light, Dick knew that the victory was as good as won; for the former would be able to convince the good wife and mother that it was, after all, a reasonable conclusion, as well as the sole hope of saving their imperiled homes. Bob Armstrong shook his head, even while his eyes grew dim as they rested on Dick's eager face. "God knows, your mother and I understand and appreciate the motive that prompts you to say that, my boy," he said; "but we could not accept the sacrifice that it would mean. If there is no other way to save our farms, then they must go, and we will have to take up some new land, and start in afresh." "But, father, why should you feel that way?" the lad went on to say. "Can you not trust me in the woods? Have I ever failed to take every precaution, and up to now has anything serious ever happened to me?" "No, it is not that, son," replied Bob; "a man could not wish to have a better boy than you have always been, and I wager you know more woodcraft right now than either your Uncle Sandy or myself had in our heads at your age. But it would not be right for us to stay comfortably at home here, while our sons were meeting with all manner of perils off in that unknown country."