As Conner had hoped, the patrol’s first night in camp by the Missouri was a quiet and peaceful one. At Conner’s request, Hawk didn’t inform any of the men of the existence of a saloon a short distance down the river. At sunup the next morning, the fires were revived and breakfast was under way. Although Hawk had already established the fact that Luther Trotter was not in possession of any information helpful to their mission, Conner planned to stop there briefly before heading to Fort Benton. He figured the distance from Great Falls to Fort Benton was about forty miles, one day’s march up the Mullan Road. “Might as well start where they were last seen and go on up to Fort Benton,” he said to Hawk.

“I don’t see as how there’s any other place to start,” Hawk replied. “Maybe somebody up there can tell us a little bit more about these folks we’re tryin’ to find. Right now, we’re not even sure of the exact number of folks in that train. But if they were all ridin’ mules and, I expect, leadin’ pack mules behind ’em, they can’t have just disappeared.’ Course, you said they were a religious group of folks, so I reckon we have to allow for the possibility that they were suddenly called home to heaven. And that’s gonna make trackin’ ’em that much harder.”

“Maybe I shoulda brought one of the other scouts and left you back on the Boulder to work on your cabin,” Conner responded in like sarcasm. “We might as well get started.” They walked over to where the men were preparing to saddle up and Conner informed them of the day’s schedule. “We’ll make a day’s ride up to Fort Benton. There’s a trading post about half a mile downstream from here, and we’ll stop there briefly while I talk to the owner. If you want to, and if you have any money, you can take that opportunity to buy any food or whatever to supplement your rations.” It took a moment of silence before his soldiers thought to add two and two to realize they could have used that information the night before. Some low mumbling could soon be heard near the back of the column. Conner looked at Hawk and grinned.

“Ain’t you afraid you’re gonna ruin your reputation as the most popular patrol leader at Fort Ellis?” Hawk asked.