partner in the enterprise, he
having furnished the information on which Jack hoped to rehabilitate
his father's fortunes.

As for the professor, he did not so much regard the pecuniary side of
the expedition as the opportunity he would have to write an
epoch-making book and confound his scientific rivals. In their
enthusiasm, the adventurers did not take into consideration the fact
that the map might be wrong, or that the strange metals be just
visionary deposits. The boys' enthusiasm drowned all doubts in their
minds; Zeb and the professor never were as optimistic.

Dr. Mays, when he had been placed in full possession of the facts and
considered them, decided that under the circumstances the boys could
go and undertook to quiet any apprehensions Mr. Chadwick might have
concerning the trip. It was found that enough had been saved from the
wreck of the inventor's fortunes to enable him to live comfortably
while the boys were away, besides which he had royalties from several
inventions coming in. Still, the bulk of his fortunes had vanished and
the radio telephone was not yet a practicable instrument to put upon
the market.

But with Z.2.X. the boys hoped to make it a perfect transmitter of
speech over great distances.

Of course, Jack's plan was to utilize the Wondership on the enterprise
of finding Rattlesnake Island and its treasures. After long
consultations with Zeb, who was now convalescent, it was decided to
ship the craft, in sections, to Yuma on the Colorado River and make
the start secretly from some point below there.

It was in the midst of these plans, and while the boys' workshed was
littered with lists of provisions and equipment that Dick Donovan
injected himself into the situation. The red-headed young reporter
descended upon them one day when they were busily packing the
Wondership away in big crates, which were labeled in various ways so
as to give no inkling of the contents.

Of course Dick, being in a way a member of the firm, had to be told
what was going on, and the result was that after a lot of hard
pleading the boys consented to allow him to come along.

"He's got red hair," said Zeb, "and that ought to make him good on the
trail, same as a buckskin cayuse."

The boys didn't quite see the logic of this, but they knew from former
experiences that the young reporter was a good campmate, and they
were, on the whole, glad that they had included him. But when young
Donovan came to High Towe