"I'm with you, Bob, if Dad says it's O. K." answered Paul Breckenridge.
"It's all right if you want to," agreed the Judge. "You could change your camp down to the creek-bed if you wish."
"I'd rather stay on top of the mountain," answered Phil. "This just suits me."
So it was agreed that the boys would camp with the professor and keep
Kie Wicks at a safe distance.
But Kie had had enough. Word leaked out that they had not found any treasure. Kie did not want the claims. He was not a mining man by temperament and hated the toil and privation that went into the working of claims in the hills.
Day after day now Professor Gillette went in search of the Indian ruins, hoping to find something that would give him credit in his college. A few bits of broken pottery, some arrowheads and a foot of crumbling wall were not the things that would bring him fame as an explorer.
The vacation was almost over.
Only once did the girls get the old man away from his search. Before returning home they wanted to visit the summer range where the large herd of cattle grazed, that belonged to Judge Breckenridge. It was five miles over the Cayuga Range.
It was Joy's first outing after her accident and she mounted the broad back of Dolly with the same fear that she always felt with a horse.
"I'll never get used to it," she sighed, as the other girls leaped gaily into their saddles.