Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/120

 *way to noon, they saw two horsemen, coming from the south. Indians? No! White men—soldiers!

Lieutenant Pike cried gladly, and fired his gun, in signal. His face had been dark and stern; now it lighted up, and they all galloped for the two men. Lieutenant Wilkinson was only three miles south, on the Arkansaw.

"What! The Arkansaw?" Lieutenant Pike repeated.

"Yes, sir. It is right close."

"Have you found the Spanish trail?"

"No, sir. But we found the river."

The two soldiers guided. When they drew near where the river was, Lieutenant Wilkinson galloped out. By the way in which he shook hands with his chief and with the doctor, he, too, had been worried.

"Sure, we thought you were lost or scalped," said John Sparks, to Stub, in camp.

"No lost; you lost," answered Stub.

"Well, depends on how you look at it," agreed John Sparks, scratching his red hair.

The river was a wide river, flowing between Cottonwood trees. The country was flat, and the trees had hidden the size of the river. The men began to look for trees to make boats of. Did this mean that Chief Pike was going to travel on by boat? Baroney explained.