Page:Hugh Pendexter--Kings of the Missouri.djvu/130

 Papa. After the boat passes you must start back," said Lander with a sigh in his voice.

"Name of heaven! Go back and leave you to be captured perhaps at Lexington? You slander me!" "Bridger's men won't let them take me."

"They will have a writing from the court. If Bridger stops them, then the A. F. C. will make it warm for his company, perhaps try to take away his license. No, no! We must not let M'sieu Bridger have trouble over it."

"I'd rather have you with me than a thousand mountain men, but it's my trouble."

"I am here, Etienne Clair. I went to my room and brought this." He held up a long heavy package securely wrapped in buckskin. "I have come to stay. Not only to Lexington, eight days away, but to the mountains. By the grace of God I will see what truth there is in the cooking-springs and caves of war-paint. See these!"

He unwrapped the package and disclosed three long scabbards, one of his dearly beloved knives in each. With the one in his boot he had four. He proceeded to fasten the three blades to his belt, saying as he did so:

"They are all I had to bring. They would