"Then you are going to set aside nine years of our lives to begin with, and when they are gone--wasted--begin another nine years?"

"Time won't be wasted, doctor; we shall have found out something or another."

"The question seems to me," said Bourne, "is it worth the trouble?"

"If we'd got to spend nine more years in making a fortune here, doctor, we shouldn't think the time too long."

"Perhaps not."

"Well, it wouldn't be in getting the gold, even if it took nine years, and if we're lucky it mightn't take nine months. It's all chance whether we hit on the right trail to begin with or at the last."

"It's a wild and desperate adventure," said the doctor sternly, "and only excusable on the ground that we have wasted years upon this plantation and are now in a desperate state."

"Oh, don't call it desperate, doctor. We're going on a job that's going to be full of fun. We've only got to hold together pluckily to do it.

Why, it's as easy as easy."

"To go and seek blindly through three great States for the spot delineated on this rough map?" cried Bourne.

"We shan't go blindly, sir; you may depend on that. We shall keep our eyes open pretty wide," said Griggs, with a merry look at the boys.

"Now, look here, gentlemen, I tell you I've been thinking all this out, and it seems to me that we can cut it all down into a small patch."

"How?" said the doctor.

"By getting rid of all the outside useless bits of the job."

"I don't understand you," cried Wilton. "Hard or easy, I've made up my mind to see the thing through; but just explain a little more what you mean, Griggs."

"That's right enough, sir; I will. Now, look here; we've got our map, or plan, or whatever you call it."

"Yes," said Bourne.

"It's not very good writing, nor yet nicely finished off, but to my mind one thing's very clear, and it's this: wherever the ruined city is it must be somewhere that hasn't been settled by emigrants and ranchers."

"Certainly," cried the doctor; "that's clear."

"Very well, then, sir; if you think a moment you'll see that you clear away thousands o' square miles of settled country at once, where we needn't go to look."

"Yes, he's right there," said Bourne. "Go on, Griggs."

"Give me time, sir. Well, then, the only parts we've got to search are those where the country's quite wild, and no one been there but Indians."

"Exactly," said the doctor.

"Then the parts we have got to search are not half so big already, being only the bad desert lands."

"Good," cried Wilton.

"Here's where the map comes in now, gentlemen," continued Griggs. "What does it say on it--what does it show?"

"Very little," replied Bourne.

"That's true, sir. I could make a better map myself; but it does show one thing, and that is that the gold city lies amongst the mountains."

"Yes, quite true," said the doctor.

"Then here you are, sir: if the gold city lies amongst the mountains it can't be any good for us to go hunting for it among the plains."

"Of course not."

"There you are, then, sir. Look, as the proper maps'll show you, what a big hunch of these three States we're going to search is marked off as prairie-land."

"To be sure."

"Then that as good as halves what we've got to go over again. We've got to make for the mountain-path always till we find those three sugar-loafy bits the poor fellow marked down. Why, neighbour, we're cutting off a lot of pieces that we shan't need to meddle with. You see, it's coming down and getting less every time we begin to work."

"There's a deal in what you say," said the doctor thoughtfully, "but the country is immense."

"So was the Atlantic Ocean, sir, when Mr Christopher Columbus set sail in his ship to find land. That was jumping right into the darkness."

"Hear, hear!" cried Bourne and Wilton together, and the boys hammered the table.

"Yes," said the doctor, more thoughtfully, "and he had nothing but a kind of faith to work on. You are quite right, Griggs; we have some grounds to go upon."

"Instead of deep water, sir," said the American, grinning.

"And you being captain of the expedition, Lee," cried Wilton, "will have a far better chance of success."

"Shall I? I don't see why."

"You will, because you'll have a smaller crew, one that will not rise in mutiny against you and want to go back."

"How do I know that?" said the doctor dryly.

"Because we promise you, to a man--and boy--eh, Chris--Ned?--that we'll stick to you to the end."

"Of course," cried the boys together; while the others said, "Hear, hear!"

"That's all very well," said the doctor dryly. "We're sitting here comfortably at this table, and in this shanty, and rough as it is we have found it a comfortable home. We've had our evening meal, and we're going to lie down for a good night's rest. But wait till some day when we're all worn out with hunger and fatigue--out, perhaps, in some thirsty desert--without a roof to cover us, and surrounded by dangers such as at the present time we cannot conceive. How will you feel then--what will you say then?"

"Never say die, father," cried Chris.

"Britons never shall be slaves," cried Ned.

"Nor Yankee Doodles neither, doctor," cried Griggs, laughing.

"I say we'll all stick to our captain like men," said Wilton warmly.

"And I that I shall clap you on the shoulder, Lee, and say, Thank goodness, we've fought through our troubles so far, and that, please goodness, we'll go on bravely to the end."