When Mr. Wallace listened to the appeal from Lanky, he agreed that since the three chums had had so much to do with finding the two maps and advancing the spark of their common cause, it should be as they wished.
Paul, however, was to be grievously disappointed, for his ankle, which he had sprained on first coming to Rockspur Ranch, began to trouble him again.
"Hard luck, Paul," Frank told him, on taking a look at the painful joint. "You've gone and knocked that ankle against a root or a rock, and if you're wise you'll lay low for a couple of days."
So when the others started forth with fair hopes of accomplishing something worth while, poor Paul was left to tend camp.
"Be sure and make your way up to the corral along toward noon," Lanky told him: "so as to see that our ponies are O.K.—that is, if your ankle lets you limp that far."
"No trouble about it, I guess," returned the chagrined Paul, who naturally did not like to be left behind when his chums were going to be in harness and do some exploring.
"Cook yourself a fat lunch, too," advised Lanky, feeling sorry for the disappointed boy. "It'll help pass the hours away. At most, we expect to show up some time before sundown. By-by! Keep an eye out for those tough men, though I don't believe they mean to return here for days, if ever."
So Frank and Lanky went off, never dreaming that they were fated to pass through another wonderful experience before again setting eyes on the chum they left behind.
Lanky and Frank learned just where the others had done most of their looking for the so-called Lost Mountain, in the depths of which, they understood, was the five-fingered cave that Josh Kinney used to visit regularly, to replenish his depleted treasury by a fresh haul from his deposit of gold nuggets.
Before leaving the camp Lanky and Frank, between them, had laid out a plan of campaign. Following this they now set off on a tangent with the course taken a short time before by Mr. Wallace, Jerry Brime and Zander Forbes.