"I am now," replied the tall
Go Ahead Boy somewhat ruefully.

"What happened to you?" asked Fred.

"I got lost too. We waited for you to come back and when you didn't come
after a long time, I started out to look for you. Pete told me not to do
it, but of course I knew better than he did and nothing would do but I
must try it. It's lucky I'm here, let me tell you."

"Did you find your way back to the place where Pete left you?"

"I did not. He found me. Now then, what happened to you? We didn't know
but that you might have fallen over some rim or been bitten by a
rattlesnake or swallowed by a mountain lion. The first thing we knew was
when Kitoni came along and told us."

"Did you go back to the place where you were when I left you?"

"What do you think we'd do? Of course we went back. We didn't know but by
some kind of fool-luck you might have gone back there and if we weren't on
hand we knew you wouldn't know the place and most likely would go on past
it and then be lost on the other side. You see we were in a tight box."

"I'm sorry," said Fred ruefully. "All I can say is that from this time on
I'm going to stick so close to the crowd that nobody can lose me."

"You'd better!" said John threateningly. "I thought I was done for, when I
got lost too. I thought of Fremont and Kit Carson and the Forty-niners and
all the old chaps that came out over the Santa Fe trail. I have heard my
father tell what fights they had with the Indians and how their water and
supplies ran low and all that, but if any of them had any harder time than
I had then I'm sorry for him, that's all. There was just one thing that
made me hang to it."

"What was that?" inquired Grant.

"Why it was what my father had told me. He said that the difference
between men isn't very much,--I mean what makes one man succeed and
another man fail. He says it's just that little difference though that
counts. I remember he told me about one of his classmates in college who
was the brightest fellow in the class. He started in all right on any line
of work, but just before the job was all ready to be clinched he usually
gave up. My father says that is the way it is with men. They may be all
right up to the last point, but that last point is the one that counts.
That's the 'final punch' that counts most."

"Well, I'm glad you got out of it all right anyway," said Fred cordially.
"Did you see any bears or mountain lions or snakes."

"Not one, but I saw so