“That’s a good arrangement,” declared Hiram; and the divided journey was begun.
It proved a very unwise experiment, the way things turned out. The circuit was not so easy to follow as it had seemed. Pursuing a ravine and its branches, at the end of three hours the boys found themselves inextricably mixed up as to location or direction, with so many hills in view that they could not tell which was the one they had had in view when they separated from the aviator.
“Yes,” observed Hiram now, looking rather hopelessly about them; “we’re lost, that’s sure.”
“Then the thing is to find ourselves,” said Dave, cheerily.
“Worst of all, Mr. King has got all the lunch,” mourned Hiram. “See here, Dave, when are you going to make a start from here?”
“Why, when we get rested we’ll press right forward and get to a town or back to the Albatross.”
“That’s easily said; but not done.”
“Well, we can try; can’t we?”
“I suppose so.”
Hiram was out of sorts. His gloom somewhat abated, however, and finally walking on, they came across a big patch of wild raspberries. When, a little later, Dave discovered a pecan tree, Hiram quite recovered his spirits.