"Not being a 'lubber,'" retorted Grant, "of course I'm not sure. I'm not very much impressed by a 'lubber's' knowledge anyway."
The Go Ahead Boys laughed at the retort, but their interest in their immediate problem was too keen to permit other matters to enter their thoughts.
"Now how do we know that those letters don't refer to the stake itself?" asked George.
"A brilliant remark," said Grant scornfully. "All you have to do is to locate the claim that Simon Moultrie staked and then prove that it is a half-mile northeast, a quarter-mile southeast, and a quarter of a mile north northeast from some place that you don't care anything about."
"That's not it," said Zeke, shaking his head as he spoke. "It's the claim itself. My opinion is that you go a half-mile northeast from Split Rock. Then turn and go one-quarter of a mile southeast and then a quarter of a mile north northeast."
Both the Navajos were present, standing on the border of the assembly and their shining eyes betrayed their keen interest in the discussion.
"If I recollect aright," said John, "in that diary of Simon Moultrie's he wrote that he was in the middle of Thorn's Gulch when he struck the vein just right."
"That's so," spoke up Grant quickly, "I do remember that."
"Yea!" continued John, elated by the response which had greeted his words, "and that isn't all. He says he followed it up and found the place he was looking for. Didn't he say too that he had already had an assay made and that it was great?"
"Wonderful, String!" said Fred. "You have proved yourself to be a great man. That's exactly what was in the diary as I recall it. The only thing then for us to do is to follow along the middle of Thorn's Gulch until we strike the vein."