exclaimed Baldy Bicknell, when he returned. 'You take care of
yourselves till I come back again!'

With which speech he slung his rifle over his shoulder and started for
St. Louis.

CHAPTER VII. THE STEAM MAN ON HIS TRAVELS.

YOUNG BRAINERD had a mortal fear that the existence of the steam man
would be discovered by some outsider, when a large crowd would
probably collect around his house, and his friends would insist on a
display of the powers of the extraordinary mechanism.

But there was no one in the secret except his mother, and there was no
danger of her revealing it. So the boy experimented with his invention
until there was nothing more left for him to do, except to sit and
watch its workings.

Finally, when he began to wonder at the prolonged delay of the
trapper, who had visited him some weeks before, he made his appearance
as suddenly as if he had risen from the ground, with the inquiry:

'Have you got that thundering old thing ready?'

'Yes: he has been ready for a week, and waiting.'

'Wal, start her out then, fur I'm in a hurry.'

'You will have to wait awhile, for we can't get ready under half a
day.'