"'Watch'?" repeated Grant. "What do you mean? What are we going to watch?"
"You're going to be on the lookout," was all that Zeke was willing to
explain. "There's going to be some things goin' on around here worth
seein', in my opinion," he added, "but I don't know just what and I'm not
sure just where. I do know though the first thing that's going to be
done."
"What's that?" inquired Grant.
"I'm going to get under the shadow of that big rock yonder and then I'm
going to cook some dinner."
"But it isn't more than eleven o'clock," protested Fred.
"I don't care what time it is. I'm going to cook the dinner if it's
seventeen o'clock to-morrow mornin'."
"And after dinner what?" asked Grant.
"What I told you," said Zeke. "I'm going to leave you boys here on the
lookout while I go down over the rim."
"What are you going for?" asked Fred.
"Two things," replied Zeke. "I'm going to look first for those two pesky
Navajos and then I'm going to have an eye on that ledge that Simon
Moultrie referred to in his diary."
"If you have one eye in one direction and the other in another, Zeke,"
laughed Fred, "you'll be getting cross-eyed the first thing you know."
Fred's laugh relieved the tension somewhat and when dinner had been
prepared by the guides the spirits of all had risen once more.
"I'm suggesting," said Grant before the boys arose from their seats, "that
we form five big circles here, about twenty-five feet apart. We'll have a
common center and then from there we will start out, every one covering
the part that has been given him. In this way we'll be able to cover a
good deal of this ground and find out whether there's anything here to
show that Simon Moultrie ever struck a claim."
"Better not try that until I come back," suggested Zeke. "I will be back
along about supper time and I may have somethin' to report when I come. If
I do, it may change all your plans."
"What do you expect to report, Zeke?" asked George.
"Just exactly what I find," answered the guide solemnly, whereat the Go
Ahead Boys all laughed loudly.
"Now, you mind what I say," said Zeke a few minutes later. "Don't none of
you go more'n a hundred yards from this spot. It may be I shall need the
help of every one of you and need it in a hurry too. If I do, I want you
on hand. Besides, there isn't any use in any more of you wanderin' off
into the gullies trying to lose yourselves."
Zeke arose and after he had carefully looked to his person to assure
himself that his revolver was in his hip pocket and that the pole he had
taken would stand a severe test, quickly started toward the rim. Not once
did he glance behind him and in a brief time he stepped lightly over the
rim of the Gulch and disappeared from the sight of the Go Ahead Boys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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