"Look! oh! look, Dick, are my eyes going back on me--is this one of those mirages they told us we would meet with on the prairies; or is that really a boat--yes, two, _three_ of them--down at the bend below, and working up against even all this fierce current? Three boats, Dick--wasn't that what Captain Lewis had with him when he started away from St. Louis? Oh! speak and tell me if I am going out of my mind, and seeing things that I've been dreaming about so long!" Dick laughed, and hugged his cousin with rapture. "No, no, Roger, your eyes are all right, and the boats are there!" he cried. "We've only managed to get _ahead_ of the expedition, that's all. And we'll be saved now, Roger! We've won out at last!" FOOTNOTE: [5] See "Pioneer Boys of the Mississippi." CHAPTER XXIV A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT AFTER that neither of the boys could utter a word for a time. They just stood there, trembling with emotion, and staring at the moving figures down the river. Then, as if by agreement, they turned and faced each other. Dick thrust out his hand impulsively, and it was instantly seized by his cousin. Indeed, Roger looked as though he could hardly restrain himself from throwing his arms about the neck of his companion, so greatly was he overcome; but probably the conviction that such an act, however natural, would seem weak and childish, restrained him. Boys in those days had so much responsibility placed upon their young shoulders that they had to call themselves men long before they reached the age of twenty-one. By degrees they became somewhat calmer, and could even speak once more without betraying their emotion. "They're making headway against even that powerful current, don't you see, Dick?" was what Roger remarked, as though something in the occurrence pleased him. "Yes, it would have to be greater difficulties than that to keep those determined men from pushing forward," observed Dick, in turn. "They have overcome everything that has cropped up to try and discourage them, up to now. And with such a leader as Captain Lewis, they are bound to cross all the way to the ocean." "But don't you see that, if they can breast that current, they will be able to get us off this island trap?" continued Roger. "I'm sure of that," answered the other; "and now, Roger, let's signal to them, for as yet they don't seem to have noticed us standing here." "Then they're due for the greatest surprise of the whole trip," chuckled Roger. "It must be the last thing they'd ever think to see, a couple of white boys further up the river than they've come after all these months. Say when you're ready, Dick, and we'll call out hello!" "Let it be now, then," replied his comrade. Together they sent out lusty hails, forming their hands into cups that would answer the purpose of a megaphone, though neither Roger nor Dick had ever seen such a thing, since it was utterly unknown at that day.