“I guess we’ll be goin’ on, as we agreed,” said the man with the scar when their simple repast had been eaten.

No one interposed any objections, and the two men, after Zeke had once more refused to restore the pistol which he had taken from them, arose and started toward the path which before they had followed when they had returned to the camp.

CHAPTER XXII

SPLIT ROCK

“Well, boys,” said Zeke when the men had departed, “my advice to you is to watch out for those two fellows.  I told ’em they would go in a hurry when they left camp.  You watch ’em!  There they are now!”

As he spoke the feet of each of their recent visitors suddenly flew out from under him and both men slid rapidly forward on their backs.

“Haw!  Haw!” roared Zeke, who was seldom heard to laugh.  “That’s a good ’un!  Come back here,” he shouted, “and I’ll pick you up!”

The Go Ahead Boys, however, did not wait for the men to rise.  Running swiftly to the place where they had disappeared from sight they peered down the sloping side of the Gulch and saw both men still moving rapidly in their descent.

Apparently neither was in any special difficulty, although both were moving swiftly in their descent.  They had gone down the shelving and soft side of the Gulch a hundred feet or more before either of them regained his footing.  The man with the scar, who was in advance of his companion, first attempted to rise, but his effort was intercepted by his larger companion who slid against him with full force, again sending both men rolling down the cliff side.

Inasmuch as there was no special danger connected with their descent, for the ground was soft, the amusement of the Go Ahead Boys became keen.  They laughed and shouted their words of approval, and Zeke’s words were the loudest of all.

The two men, when at last they succeeded in regaining an upright position, turned and savagely shook their fists at the laughing party on the rim of the Gulch and then resuming their descent, continued on their way until both disappeared from sight.

“I’m thinkin’,” said Zeke as the party returned to the camp, “that those fellows won’t come back here again, at least in the daytime.”

“If they come at night,” suggested Fred, “it won’t do us any good, I’m afraid.”

“No more it won’t,” acknowledged the guide, “but if my plans work out, when they come back here we shall be gone.”

“Did you find Tom’s Thumb?” asked Grant

“We did,” answered the guide quietly.

“You did?” exclaimed Grant.  “If you had never seen it before how did you know it was the place for which you were looking?”

“You couldn’t miss it,” explained Zeke.  “There’s a stretch of rock there almost as big as a house that is shaped exac’ly like a man’s fist, only the thumb stands straight up.”