"There," he said as he held it forth to view. "That's just as good as the original." "It's a mighty pretty picture," scoffed George. "The only trouble with it is that no one knows whether it is correct or not." "Zeke, isn't that drawing all right?" demanded John as he held forth the paper to the guide. "It isn't so far wrong," acknowledged Zeke cautiously, "but I guess we'll be able to do something whether we have any paper or not. I'm more afraid of those two men than I am that we shan't be able to draw th' picture that old Sime had in his diary." All four boys looked keenly into the face of the guide but no one inquired concerning the meaning of his words. "Well, the little book is gone, anyway," continued Zeke. "We've got to decide what we'll do without it. When do you boys want to start?" "What do you mean? For the lost mine?" demanded Fred. "That's what I thought you wanted to do." "Well, we do all right," said Fred quickly. "Are we ready to start?" "We can be in a few minutes," said Zeke. "I think we can drop down the river in the two boats. That will be easier than climbing up the cliffs." "Great!" exclaimed Fred enthusiastically. "How far can we go with the boats?" "Ten or twelve miles," answered Zeke. "And when we stop we'll be more than half way to Thorn's Gulch. It's so much quicker to go by the river than over land." "That will be fine," repeated Fred. "Let's get started." "It's going to be hot in the middle of the day," suggested Zeke warningly. "All the more reason then for starting right away," said Grant. "All right," assented Zeke. "We'll put things to rights here in the camp and then we'll go down to start on our voyage." The light tent was folded and concealed under the projecting rock nearby. Most of the cooking utensils also were hidden or at least placed where they would not attract the attention of any chance visitor. It was extremely unlikely that any one would come to the place, although among the parties visiting the Grand Canyon there might be some who would be attracted by the safe landing place, just as the Go Ahead Boys and their guides already had been. "We had better plan to be gone about four days!" spoke up Pete who up to this time had taken no part in the morning conversation. "I should think we ought to have supplies for more than that," said Fred. Pete, however, insisted that the time he had named would be ample for their first attempt. "If we don't strike anything," he explained, "we shan't need to stay any longer and if we do we can mark the spot or leave someone there on guard and the rest can come back for more supplies." "What do you think, Zeke?" asked Fred. "I think Pete is all right," replied the guide. "We want to leave our supplies here pretty well protected and we don't want to take enough with us to tire us out carrying them. We'll have to measure it down pretty fine. We want just enough but not an ounce more than we ought to have."