“If I had an automobile I’d start after supper,” Dalzell informed them.

“But not having a car you’ll wait till you’re grown up and have begun to earn money of your own,” laughed Harry Hazelton.

“What do you say, Dick?” asked Dan Dalzell anxiously.

“I say that I’m going to put in a few days or a fortnight at Lake Pleasant if I can possibly find the way,” Dick retorted, with a sudden energy that was quite out of keeping with the heat of the afternoon.

“Hurray!” from Danny Grin.

“That’s what I call the right talk,” added Darrin.

“How will the rest of us get along with the canoe while you’re gone?” questioned Tom Reade.

“You don’t suppose I’d go to Lake Pleasant without the rest of the crowd?” Dick retorted rather scornfully.

“Then you’re going to take us all with you, and the canoe, too?” Tom demanded, betraying more interest.

“If I can find the way to do it, or if any of you fellows can,” was young Prescott’s answer.

That started another eager volley of talk.  Yet soon all of them save Dick looked quite hopeless.

The railroad ran only within eight miles of the lake.  From the railway station the rest of the journey was usually made by automobile stages, while baggage went up on automobile trucks.  Charges were high on this automobile line up into the hills.  To send the canoe by rail, and then transfer it to an automobile truck would cost more than to transport it direct from Gridley to the lake by wagon.

“We can talk about it all we want,” sighed Tom, “but I don’t see the telephone poles on the golden road to Lake Pleasant.”

“We’ve got to find the way if we can,” Dick retorted firmly.  “Let’s all set about it at once.”

“When do we start?” teased Tom.

“Monday morning early,” laughed Dave.  “And this is late Saturday afternoon.”

Dan Dalzell was not in his usually jovial spirits.  His heart was as much set on going as was Dick’s, but Dan now felt that the pleasure jaunt was simply impossible.

“Let’s meet on Main Street after supper,” Dick proposed.  “Perhaps by that time we’ll have found an idea or two.”

“If we can find a pocketbook or two lying in the Main Street gutter, that will be something more practical than finding ideas,” Tom replied with a doleful shake of his head.  “But perhaps we’ll really find the pocketbooks.  Such things are told of in story books, anyway, you know.”

“If we find any pocketbooks,” smiled Dick, “our first concern after that will be to find the owners of them.  So that stunt wouldn’t do us much good, even if it happened.”

Then the boys separated and went to their respective homes for supper.  But Dick Prescott did not eat as much as usual.  He was too preoccupied.  He knew to a penny the amount that was in the treasury of their little canoe club, for Mr. Prescott was holding the money subject to his son’s call.  Certainly the money in the treasury wouldn’t bring about a vacation at Lake Pleasant.