"Well, I rode all the way. Now you go on the shoulder of this mountain back of us, above the spring, and work up the best you can, but keep your eye on Jefferson. Get up right high, before you head across to the canyon of the Missouri, so you can be above the high cliff that you can't get over in the bed of the stream. Then you go down in the canyon and cross, best you can, and then ride up on the far side, and then work off for the top of Jefferson. "You'll know the little bowl on top the mountain. That's the top sponge. But the real head stream is even beyond that. You'll find my tin plate there, I guess, with my name and date. "I'm glad you had some good fishing here. We'll have some of your trout for breakfast. The feather beds are made from wild-goose and duck feathers. It's been a great country for them." CHAPTER XXIX THE HEAD OF THE GREAT RIVER Bright and early they were in the saddle and off for the crowning experience of their long quest for the head of the great Missouri. Billy brought up the horses from the ranch below. The chauffeur from Monida said he "had not lost any mountains" and preferred not to make the ascent, so only five were in the party, Billy, of course, insisting on seeing the head of the river, in which he had had such interest all his life. They took one pack horse, a few cooking implements, and such blankets as their hostess could spare, their own bed rolls and most of their equipment having gone back to Billy's ranch by his pack train. Their supply of food was only enough for two meals--supper and breakfast--but this gave them two days for the ascent, whereas Mrs. Culver had made it in one; so they felt sure of success. Well used to mountain work, and guided by a good engineer, their Uncle Dick, who had spent his life in work among wild countries, they wound easily in and among the shoulders of the hills, taking distance rather than sharp elevation, and so gradually and without strain to the horses working up the mountain that lay at one side of Mount Jefferson. When they were well up, they followed a long hogback that swung a little to the left, and at length turned for their deliberate plunge down into the steep valley of the stream. Here, among heavy tracts of fallen timber and countless tumbled rocks, they came at last to the white water of their river, now grown very small and easily fordable by the horses.