The Go Ahead Boys and Simons Mine | Page 5

Gulch run?"
"It's a funny place," explained Zeke; "it runs mostly north and south. It takes a sharp turn at the lower end."
"Probably that was to let out the water that had been caught in there."
"Probably," said Zeke scornfully. The guide had slight confidence in the explanations which the boys had to give for the formation of the great chasms found near the Colorado River and its tributaries. "I'm thinkin' that the One who made that Canyon could just as well make it the way it is as the way you say."
"No doubt about that," Fred laughingly had conceded. "It isn't a question of ability, it is simply how it was done."
"According to what I can find out," said Zeke, "there seems to be styles in explainin' things, same as there is in clothes. My wife doesn't want to wear the dress she had two years ago even if it isn't worn out very much. When I ask her what's the matter with it she says it's out o' style. It's the same way with explaining how this great hole in the ground came here. There seems to be a sort of 'style' about it. Some people say it's erosion, others say it's the work of a big glacier. Then too I have heard some say as how it was neither and some said it was both. That doesn't make any difference though, but I know where Thorn's Gulch is and I can go there if you want to."
"If Simon found a mine what was it?"
"Can't say," replied Zeke sharply. "It might be gold, it might be zinc and more likely might be copper. Most likely of all though is that he didn't find no mine 't all."
"There isn't anything more in the diary about it anyway," said Fred, who now had looked through all the pages without discovering any further description. "How long is Thorn's Gulch?"
"Somewhere between fifteen and twenty miles," answered Zeke.
"Whew!" whistled John. "If we're going to look up the lost mine we'll have some 'looking' to do I'm thinking."
"Right you are," said Fred soberly. "Do you think we had better try to find this place?"
"That's for you to say," said Zeke. "It's all one to me whether I help you find a copper mine or whether I keep you from, tipping over in the boat. I'm inclined to think the boat business is a good deal safer than the other."
"But we can't throw away a clue like this," protested Fred. "Here it is," he added, again looking at the map. "Two Crow Tree and Tom's Thumb and then across the Gulch about half way between the two places on the other side is Split Bock and then back of that is the stake. I don't know what these figures mean."
"I do," said John confidently, "it's a half-mile northeast, then you go a quarter of a mile southeast and then you turn and go a quarter of a mile north northeast. Why, it's just as simple as the multiplication table."
Zeke smiled and shook his head and although he did not speak it was plain that he did not accept John's explanation of the somewhat mysterious figures as correct.
"Did you ever hear of Two Crow Tree?" asked John.
"I never did," said Zeke solemnly.
"Well, did you ever hear of Tom's Thumb?"
"Can't say that I have."
"Then, it's plain," said John, winking at Fred as he spoke, "that we'll have to get somebody who is more familiar than you are, Zeke, with this part of the country."
"Huh!" snorted Zeke. "Don't you believe it. There ain't nobody in these diggin's that knows the country like I do."
"But you don't know where Two Crow Tree is or Tom's Thumb, to say nothing about Split Rock on the opposite side of the canyon."
"That doesn't mean that I can't find them," retorted Zeke. "You mustn't forget either that those names may be the ones that Simon gave the places. They may not be on the map at all and nobody else may ever have called them by those names."
"Well, shall we try to find the place? That's the question," said John somewhat impatiently.
"Not until the other boys and Pete come back here."
Pete was the name of the second guide and on most occasions Zeke professed to despise his judgment and belittle his information.
"Oh, Pete will do just what you say is the thing to be done," said Fred, winking at John as he spoke.
"That 's likely," assented Zeke. "All the same I'm not going to start off with you two boys and leave the other two here for Pete to look after. I'm afraid Pete couldn't keep off the coyotes, to say nothing of the buzzards."
"Zeke," said Fred abruptly, "how long do you think it took the coyotes and the buzzards to strip those bones that