In a brief time the party with their packs on their backs started toward the Gulch. As has been said, the sides of the canyon at this place were not unduly steep, and, though the descent in places was difficult, none of the Go Ahead Boys had met with any mishap when at last they all safely arrived in the valley below.

There they halted for a rest and before they resumed their journey Zeke said, "It's so warm here in the middle of the day that I feel as if I was suffocated. I guess we'd better stay here where we be 'till we've cooked our dinner."

The descent had required so much effort on the part of every one of the Go Ahead Boys that they were all willing to accede to the guide's suggestion.

"Zeke, how far do you think we'll have to go before we begin our search?"

inquired Fred.

"We'll have to go until we come to the claim," replied the guide dryly.

"But when shall we begin to look?"

"Keep lookin' all the while. I'm thinkin', though," Zeke added, "that we shan't have to go more than three or four miles from the rim."

"You don't suppose he has staked his claim right on the top of the ground, do you?" inquired George.

"What put that notion into your head?" laughed the guide.

"Why it looks so on Simon's map."

"That's all right," acknowledged Zeke. "That map doesn't show many gulches, does it? But I'm not lookin' for a claim right on the flat part of the rim."

"You'll tell us when to begin to look for the stakes, won't you?" asked Fred who was deeply interested in the project which now was distinctly before him.

"Don't you worry none about that," replied Zeke. "When you boys are ready to start you say the word and we'll leave."

"I guess we're all ready to go now," suggested Grant.

"Off we go then," said Zeke, as he promptly arose and swung his pack to his back.

The party by this time was moving in single file, Zeke still leading the way and Pete following as the rear guard.

The two young Navajos had not remained in the line for any continued length of time. They were moving back and forth, the expression of their shining eyes betraying their keen interest. Indeed, the possibility of discovering a mine had so aroused every member of the party that even the guide who was leading could not entirely conceal his excitement by his manner.

For nearly three hours the little expedition continued on its way.

Climbing proved to be more difficult than the descent had been, but at last the party was near the rim.

There they halted once more while Zeke directed the Navajoes to move along the side of the gulch beneath the rim while the others continued on their way across the plateau.

"Yonder is Split Rock, I'm thinkin'," abruptly said Zeke as he stopped and pointed to a huge rock unlike any others which the boys had seen in the region. The stone had been cut almost as if by some huge knife. Several inches of the s.p.a.ce between the halves had been filled in by the dust which the winds had deposited.

In the midst of the soil thus obtained a tree was growing which now had shot up at least twenty feet above the top of the great rock.

"What do you suppose that is?" inquired George lightly. "Is the tree trying to keep those rocks apart or are the rocks trying to keep the tree in between them?"

No one replied to the query of the Go Ahead Boy, for all were keenly aroused, now that they had found the third object which Simon Moultrie had indicated on his map.

So eager were all the members of the party that in spite of their recent exertions and the loads they were carrying they all began to run. In a brief time they arrived at the destination they were seeking and as they swung their packs from their shoulders Grant hastily drew again from his pocket the map which he had made in his attempt to recall the one which Simon Moultrie had drawn in the diary that the Go Ahead Boys had found.

CHAPTER XXIII

ON THE RIM

The little a.s.sembly crowded closely about Grant and looked with eager interest at the drawings he had made.

"What does it mean?" inquired Fred, "when it says you have to go a half-mile northeast?"

"I'm not sure that it says that," replied Grant. "There's simply a mark here, 1/2 m. N.E."

"Well, any lubber knows that that means a half-mile northeast."

"Not being a 'lubber,'" retorted Grant, "of course I'm not sure. I'm not very much impressed by a 'lubber's' knowledge anyway."

The Go Ahead Boys laughed at the retort, but their interest in their immediate problem was too keen to permit other matters to enter their thoughts.

"Now how do we know that those letters don't refer to the stake itself?"

asked George.

"A brilliant remark," said Grant scornfully. "All you have to do is to locate the claim that Simon Moultrie staked and then prove that it is a half-mile northeast, a quarter-mile southeast, and a quarter of a mile north northeast from some place that you don't care anything about."

"That's not it," said Zeke, shaking his head as he spoke. "It's the claim itself. My opinion is that you go a half-mile northeast from Split Rock.

Then turn and go one-quarter of a mile southeast and then a quarter of a mile north northeast."

Both the Navajos were present, standing on the border of the a.s.sembly and their shining eyes betrayed their keen interest in the discussion.

"If I recollect aright," said John, "in that diary of Simon Moultrie's he wrote that he was in the middle of Thorn's Gulch when he struck the vein just right."

"That's so," spoke up Grant quickly, "I do remember that."

"Yea!" continued John, elated by the response which had greeted his words, "and that isn't all. He says he followed it up and found the place he was looking for. Didn't he say too that he had already had an a.s.say made and that it was great?"

"Wonderful, String!" said Fred. "You have proved yourself to be a great man. That's exactly what was in the diary as I recall it. The only thing then for us to do is to follow along the middle of Thorn's Gulch until we strike the vein."

"Huh!" retorted Zeke, "you had better make arrangements to have breakfast with the man in the moon than try any such plan as that."

"What shall we do then?" demanded John.

"We've got to decide first of all," explained Zeke, "about this claim that old Sime staked."

"That's what we're trying to do," interrupted Fred glibly.

"Be patient with the child, Zeke," said Grant dryly. "He rides on a half-fare ticket yet."

"Quit your fooling," spoke up John. "We want to find out about this."