om two inches to two yards, can try to take steps just the
required length."

"We can try that," assented Zeke dubiously, "though I'm inclined to think
the better plan will be for us to get a stick that will measure a yard as
nearly as we can make it. Then we had better measure it off. We can follow
the compass all the way and needn't go very far aside even if we don't
come to the exact spot."

"It's a long job," remarked Fred dolefully. "You see we've got to turn.
We've got to make the half-mile, then stop and change our directions and
go a quarter-mile southeast and then stop again and go a quarter of a mile
north northeast. I wonder why old Sime didn't make it a straight line
anyway."

"We may find out," said Grant, "that he had to go this way. What shall we
do, Zeke?" he added, turning to the guide.

"Whichever you say," replied Zeke.

"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 anyw