“Did I?” said Ned, rather uneasily. “What was it?”
“I dreamed that we had found the place just as it is on the map, and you couldn’t put your foot down anywhere without treading upon gold; and then your rattlesnake came and spoiled it. Here, I’m going to sleep again to finish that dream. Can’t you go now?”
“I’ll try,” said Ned, who felt horribly ashamed about his false alarm.
But it took no trying. Five minutes later both boys were sleeping soundly after this initiation in what they would have to encounter during their wild journey.
Chapter Ten.
On the Way.
Ned was ready to laugh at his scare when riding forward in the sunshine of a brilliant morning. He had been awakened by Griggs with a cheery hail, to find the cool damp air of morning impregnated with the agreeable odour of coffee fuming away over the embers of a crackling fire which showed up the browsing animals here and there in the darkness. Then came a hearty breakfast, over which the day’s proceedings were discussed, and the doctor’s decision accepted that they could not do better than strike right away in the direction of the hill seen the previous afternoon, making that their observatory for deciding future proceedings.
“Our plan of campaign is simple enough,” he said; “we must avoid all traces of civilisation, and keep to the wilds. The rest lies with chance and good fortune.”