"What are you going to do?"
"I'm goin' to hang around here an' look for dad. You'll make a quicker run to town than you would if I was along with that one-cylinder machine, anyhow."
Matt, whose mind was busy with the conversation he and Chub had overheard between Jacks and Bisbee, evolved a sudden idea.
"Is there a mine around here called the Santa Maria?" he asked.
"Seems to me I've heard of an old, played-out proposition by that name," answered Chub. "Why?"
"Do you remember what Bisbee said to Jacks while they were coming along the pack-trail? 'I can tell what we done at the old Santa Maria.' Those were his words, Chub, and I've got a hunch that that's the place to go and look for your father."
"Bully!" said Chub. "You've got more horse-sense in a minute, Matt King, than Reddy McReady has in a year. Get ready to hike, old chap. I'll have this for you in about a minute."
"I'll go over to the spring and get a drink," answered Matt, "and then I'll turn the Comet loose."
The spring was some little distance away from the center monument where Chub was doing his writing. Matt hurried toward it, gave old Baldy a friendly slap as he passed him, and then went down on his knees at the edge of the rocky pool.
Matt was feeling tolerably easy in his mind. He knew what the Comet could do, and in order to help his friends, the McReadys, he would make the miles spin out from under the pneumatic tires as they had never done before.