laughed at the boy's eagerness.

"Somewhere due south," he said; "a nice vague direction. Somewhere due
south may mean anywhere between here and Cape Horn."

"No, no, father," cried Chris; "not so far as that. I haven't forgotten
all my geography since I've been here, and I know that there are plenty
of desert regions such as that poor fellow may have been wandering in
between here and Panama."

"Hear, hear!" cried Griggs. "But give us one or two, squire."

Chris grew red and uncomfortable, but he caught his father's eye looking
keenly at him, and he spoke out.

"I don't know about being exactly south," he said. "Perhaps some of the
places lie east; but the old man might have been wandering in the
mountainous parts of Colorado or Lower California, or--or--"

"New Mexico," whispered Ned.

"Yes, New Mexico, or California, or perhaps have got to Mexico itself."

"Well done, our side!" cried Griggs, thumping the table. "Three cheers
for our own private professor of geography. To be sure, there's desert
land in all those places, as I've learned myself from fellows who have
been there. But what's Arizona done to be left out in the cold?"

"In the sun, you mean," cried Chris eagerly. "That's the hottest and
dryest place of all of them."

"To be sure," said the doctor--"the arid zone."

"Dessay it's true," said Griggs. "I vote we go and see."

"Why not Lower California, or one of the other States?" said the doctor
dryly.

"To be sure, why not?" said Griggs, and the boys, who smelt change in
the air, thumped the table.

"Quiet, quiet, boys!" said the doctor sternly. "I'm afraid, neighbour
Griggs, that your plantation would suffer a good deal during your
absence on such a wild-goose chase."

"What! My plantation suffer?" cried Griggs, chuckling. "Oh, come,
that's too good a joke, doctor! Suffer? Have you been round it
lately?"

"Not for a year past," was the reply. "I've been too busy slaving over
our own."

"Then you don't know. Why, my good neighbour, it's in nearly as bad a
condition as that poor old fellow we have just buried."

"Have you tried to sell it to some immigrant?"

"Have I tried to swindle some poor fellow just come into the country?"
cried Griggs sharply. "No, I haven't. I don't set up for being much of
a citizen, but, 'pon my word, doctor, I wouldn't be such a brute as to
even give it to a man on condition that he would live there and farm it.
Your joint plantation here i