The Greatest Works of Emerson Hough – 19 Books in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Emerson Hough
Читать онлайн книгу.
catfish both hold out, for they are our main staffs of life just now.”
They ran up the left bluff of the river, mile after mile, under the edge of the great town whose chimneys belched black smoke, noting railway train after train, their own impudent little motors making as much noise as the next along the water front. Many a head was turned to catch sight of their curious twin-screw craft, with the flag at its bow, and on the stern the name Adventurer, of America, but Rob paid no attention to this, holding her stiff into the current and heading in answer to Uncle Dick’s signals.
At last they lay alongside a little landing to which a houseboat was moored, occupied by a riverman whom Uncle Dick seemed to know.
“How do you do, Johnson,” said he, as the man poked his head out of the companionway. “You see we’re here.”
“And more’n I’d of bet on, at that!” rejoined the other. “I never expected ye could make it up at all. How long ye been — a month or so?”
“A week or so,” replied Uncle Dick, carelessly, and not showing his pride in the performance of the party. “You see, we’ve got double engines and we travel under forced draught, with the stokers stripped to the waist and doing eight shifts a day.”
“Like enough, like enough!” laughed Johnson, not crediting their run. “Well, what kin I do fer ye here?”
“Get our tanks filled. Unpack our boat and store the stuff on your boat so it can’t be stolen. Overrun our engines and oil her up. Clean out the bilge and make her a sweet ship.”
“When?”
“To-day. But we’ll not start until to-morrow morning. I’ve got a few friends to see here, and my Company of Volunteers for Northwestern Discovery will like to look around a little. We’ll stop at a hotel to-night. I’m trusting you to have everything ready for us by nine to-morrow morning.”
“That’s all right,” replied Johnson. “I’ll not fail ye, and I’ll not let anything git losted, neither.”
“I know that,” said Uncle Dick. “By the way, Johnson, which is the best outfitting store in Westport?”
“As which, sir?”
“In Westport, or say Independence. We could walk down there if we had to. Not so far.”
Old Johnson scratched his head. “Go on, Colonel, you’re always havin’ yer joke. I’m sure I don’t know what ye mean by Indypendence, or Westport. But if you want to get uptown, the street cars is four blocks yan. Er maybe ye’d like a taxi?”
“No, nothing that goes by gas, for one day, anyhow, Johnson. Well, see to the things — the crew have got the batteau about unloaded, and it’s about time for our mess to go ashore to the cook fire. Sergeant McIntyre, issue the lyed corn with the bear and venison stew to-night, and see that my ink horn and traveling desk are at hand!”
“Yes, sir, very good sir!” returned Rob, gravely. And without a smile the four stalked off up the stair, leaving Johnson to wonder what in the world they meant.
CHAPTER VIII
HO! FOR THE PLATTE!
Uncle Dick excused himself from the party for a time in the evening, having some business to attend to. He left the three boys in their room at a hotel, declaring they all would rather sleep on the houseboat with Johnson.
“It’s mighty quiet on this trip,” said Jesse.
“Nothing happens?” said Rob, looking up from his maps and the Journal which he had spread on the table. “That’s what the explorers thought when they got here! They wanted to start in killing buffalo, but there were no buffalo so close to the river even then. All our hunters got was deer; they lay here a couple of days and got plenty of deer, and did some tanning and ‘jurking.’ Clark says they took this chance to compare their ‘instrimunts,’ and also they ‘suned their powder and wollen articles.’
“Clark killed a deer below here. Drewyer, one of the best hunters, had a fat bear and a deer, too. And Lewis killed a deer next day, so the party was in ‘fine Sperrits.’”
“Oh, so would I be in fine ‘sperrits’ if I could kill a deer or so,” grumbled Jesse. “Now look at us!”
“Well,” went on Rob, “look at us, then. See here, what Clark says about it:
“‘The Countrey on each Side the river is fine, interspursed with Praries, on which immence herds of Deer is seen. On the banks of the river we observe number of Deer watering and feeding on the young willow, Several killed to-day.... The Praries come within a Short distance of the river on each Side, which contains in addition to Plumbs Raspberries &c., and quantities of wild apples, great numbrs of Deer are seen feeding in the young willows and Earbarge on the Banks and on the Sand bars in the river.’”
“I didn’t know that deer liked willow leaves,” said John.
“I didn’t, either, but here it is. And that was June 26th, when the grass was up. I’ve even known some naturalists to say that deer don’t eat grass. We know they do.
“But what we want to get here is the idea that now the expedition was just coming out of the hills and woods into the edge of the Prairies. Across these Prairies and the Plains came big river valleys that led out West toward the Rockies. If all that had been hills and timber, no road ever would have got through. It was the big waterways that made the roads into all the wilderness; we certainly learned that up in the Far North, didn’t we?
“So here was their crossroads of the waters, at old Independence, which now is Kansas City. Not much here, but a natural place for the Gate to the West.
“Clark had a good real-estate eye. He says:
“‘The Countrey about the mouth of this river is verry fine on each Side as well as north of the Missourie. A high Clift on the upper Side of the Kanses ½ a mile up, below the Kanses the hills is about 1-½ Miles from the point on the North Side of the Missourie the Hills or high lands is Several Miles back.... The high lands come to the river Kansas on the upper Side at about ½ a mile, in full view, & a butifull place for a fort, good landing place.’
“He couldn’t spell much, or put in his punctuation marks, but he certainly had a practical eye. And I reckon the first beginnings of the city were right then, for the Journal says, ‘Completed a strong redoubt or brestwork from one side to the other, of logs and Bushes Six feet high.’ Yes, I suppose that was the first white building here at the Gate.
“It’s pretty hard to find any new part of the world to-day. Yonder runs the Kaw, leading to the Santa Fe Trail — and I’ll bet there’s a thousand motor cars going west right now, a hundred times as many cars each day as there used to be wagons in a year!”
He closed his book for the time. “Maybe that’s what Uncle Dick wanted us to get in our heads!” said he.
“Some country!” said Jesse; and both John and Rob agreed.
When their leader returned a little later in the evening, the boys told him what they had been doing.
“Fine!” he said. “Fine! Well, I’ve just telegraphed home that we’re all right and that we’re off for the Platte to-morrow, early.”
“That’s another old road to the Rockies,” said Rob.
“One of the greatest — the very greatest, when you leave out boat travel. The Platte Valley led out the men with plows on their wagons, the home makers who stayed West. You see, our young leaders were only pathfinders, not home makers.”
“And a jolly good job they had!” said Jesse.
“Yes, and jolly well they did the job, son, as you’ll