“It doesn’t make so much difference when we start,” Bill told him. “We’ll have to fly part way in the dark anyhow unless we hit full speed about all the time and I don’t like to do that unless we have to. But we ought to take a couple of hours or so and go over the plane and be sure that everything is all right before we start so I’m in favor of doing as you suggest. What do you say Gordon?” “Suits me. We don’t want to have trouble with the motor on the way back, that’s certain.” “Then I’ll get the tents up while you two are doing the work on the plane,” Rogers said. “I’ll say it’s a lucky thing we did look it over,” Gordon declared an hour later. “Found something wrong?” Bill asked looking up from the commutator of the elevator motor which he had been examining. “Here’s a wire that’s all but broken and if it had given out while we were in the air——well, we’d have had to come down, that’s all.” “But this other motor would hold us up,” Bill told him. “I forgot about that one for the minute, but this would have given out before we had gone a hundred miles or I’m no mechanic. Looks to me as though there must be too much vibration here. No wonder,” he added a moment later. “This motor is all but loose.” “I’ll say it is,” Bill agreed after a short examination. “It needs some new bolts in there. Wonder if we’ve got any.” “I’ll look and see.” After a long search Gordon found the bolts and started in to replace those which were worn. It took considerable time as they were hard to get at and supper was ready by the time he had finished. “Where are we going to hide that stuff?” Bill asked later as they were sitting around the fire. “We don’t want to have it stolen now that we’ve got it.” “Who’s going to steal it?” Gordon demanded. “I don’t suppose anyone is,” Bill told him. “But, just the same, we’re going to hide it and, what’s more, we’re going to set a watch to-night.” “That’s fool——” “I think Bill’s right,” Rogers interrupted. “Of course,” he explained, “there’s not much chance of anyone coming around here to-night, but it’s possible, and that platinum is altogether too valuable to take the slightest chance with.” “I guess you’re right at that,” Gordon agreed. “It’s only for one night anyhow.” Before going to bed they packed everything which they did not need, including the platinum, in the plane as they planned to be off by four o’clock, and before nine o’clock Rogers and Bill were asleep leaving Gordon to stand the first watch until eleven. It was a beautiful night after the shower of the morning and the sky was studded with stars, and a great sense of pleasure took possession of the boy as he sat with his back to a large rock only a few feet from the plane. “It’s all a bunch of foolishness sitting up here,” he told himself as he glanced at his watch and saw that it was half past ten.