"Thank you, sir," replied Dick, for Roger could not say a word, since a lump in his throat seemed to be choking him. "We have been brought up by fathers who never knew what it was to despair. I was just wondering whether François Lascelles would immediately destroy that document, and then go on his way, resting under the belief that he had ruined all our work of months. He may have forgotten one thing, which is that Jasper Williams still lives, and can duplicate his signature, with both of you for witnesses." "Just what I was about to say," declared the soldier, with a smile of satisfaction, "and it pleases me to know that you have hit upon the same idea. Yes, while this Lascelles may think he has won his fight, the battle is never over until the last trump has sounded. When you again secure the signature you require, we will see to it that another messenger is dispatched to your home bearing it." Roger managed to find his voice then. "But how are we going to reach Jasper Williams," he asked, anxiously, "when he has gone off to find that wonderful valley where the game is so plentiful, but which the Indians are afraid to visit on account of the spirits that guard it?" The two captains exchanged glances. They realized that difficulties indeed lay in the way of accomplishing the plan they had so cheerfully laid out. "He may come back in a week or two, he told me," Dick explained, "and then again it is possible, if his companions agree, and the place suits them, that they may not return until late in the winter." "And it would be too late then to get the paper to our people at home," sighed Roger, looking exceedingly downcast. "I think I voice your sentiments as well as my own, Captain Clark," said the private secretary to the President, "when I make this suggestion. We can place one of our trusty hunters in charge of these lads, and send them off to try to find Jasper Williams and his party, whose general direction we already know." "I am of the same opinion, Captain," added the soldier, promptly, showing that he must have been thinking along similar lines. "Indeed, if an immediate start were made, they might even overtake the others on the way, for I do not fancy they will be in any great hurry, since they have orders to make notes of all they see by the way." At hearing this Roger brightened up considerably. As usual, a way out began to appear when things had become almost as gloomy as seemed possible. As for Dick, he eagerly seized upon the chance to be doing something. Like most pioneer boys, these Armstrong lads had been brought up to strive to the utmost when there was anything worth while to be attained. "Oh, thank you, Captain Clark, and you, too, Captain Lewis!" he hastened to say, "that is the kindest thing you could do for us. We will get ready to start in the morning and, if our old luck only holds out, we shall expect to come up with Jasper Williams inside of a few days."