If the load be too heavy, the preacher can be left behind; 't would be small loss." "Your plan sounds bravely in words, Chevalier, but were we to attempt it, we should soon find ourselves in more serious stress than now,--ay! before we had covered the first day's journey.

My Calvinistic friend, what advice have you for our guidance ?" The sectary's eyes were fastened upon the ragged line of hills at our back, and for the moment he made no response, his seamed face grave with thought.
"How far, Master Benteen," he queried finally, "do you make it from here to the mouth of this river ?" "Not much short of sixty leagues," I answered, after a bit of thinking.
"The stream bends and twists so it is difficult to judge the true distance." "It was a grievous journey," he admitted with a groan, "one I care not to travel again, unless it be revealed plainly to me as the will of the Lord.

I name the distance full seventy leagues.

What has been the main direction of our course ?" "To north of west." "Ay! Are we, think you, thirty leagues to northward of where we left the Spaniards ?" "I should say yes, maybe ten leagues more." "I doubt the extra ten, but even at thirty it would be foolishness to retrace all that hard-won distance merely for the sake of keeping in sight of this muddy stream, the very water of which is unfit for Christian stomach, and of no value otherwise.

'Tis my vote we strike directly east and north, following as straight a trail as possible until we find the great river.