"Then, I say we try first to let John pace a half-mile. We'll all go along with him and when he comes to the end of his eight hundred and eighty yards why all there is for us to do is to stop and change the direction according to the compass and start out again."
"We haven't anything to measure with," said John dolefully.
"We can strike it pretty close," said Zeke.
"I'll tell you what we can do, boys," said Fred. "The first joint in my thumb is just three-quarters of an inch. We can measure it with that."
Securing a piece of string Grant carefully measured according to the rule suggested by the diminutive Go Ahead Boy and soon he held up his string saying, as he did so, "If Fred is right that is exactly a yard."
"Let me see it," said Zeke, taking the string. Making his own measurements he soon declared that Grant was almost correct in his statement. "We can't get within a half-inch of it anyway," he said.
"A half-inch on a yard would mean four hundred and forty-four inches for a half-mile," said Grant. "Now four hundred and forty inches is thirty-six and three-quarter feet. If we get as far as that out of our way it will take us from now until Christmas to find old Simon Moultrie's lost mine."
"It doesn't make any difference," said John, "that's the best we can do and that's all we've got to work on."
The elongated Go Ahead Boy already had measured twenty yards of the ground and after every yard had been indicated he was walking over the distance trying to see how closely he could adjust his footsteps to the measurements which had been made.
"We'll try it anyway," said Grant. "There's nothing else to be done, but it won't be safe to start until to-morrow morning, will it, Zeke?"