to pull away from the place. But Dick shouted to
him.

"Don't let me drive you away," he cried.

Masterson shouted back something about "fresh kid" but kept pulling up
the stream, and soon he was round the bend and out of sight.

"Now, I wonder what he is doing out here?" mused Dick, "and those two
cronies of his. They look sort of shady to me."

He cudgeled his brains to find a reason for the presence of Masterson
so far from home, but was unable to arrive at any solution till an
idea suddenly struck him.

"They're out here trailing us," he muttered. "Yes, I'm sure of it. But
how in the world did they ever learn our plans? I guess I'll get back
to camp and put the rest on their guard, for we don't want any spies
hanging about, and those fellows were out on a spying expedition or I
miss my guess."

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE START FOR THE UNKNOWN.

But the days went by, and the Wondership stood once more assembled and
ready to take the greatest flight of her career, and no further sign
of the three worthies, whom Dick suspected of designs against them,
appeared. Zeb went to town once or twice, using a small burro for a
saddle animal. Jack heard from his father, who said that he was
progressing well, but was very much worried over money matters.

"If only you can find the Z.2.X.," he wrote, "we can all be happy
again."

"I will find it," Jack murmured to himself, as he concluded reading
the letter, and passed it over to Tom for his perusal.

Dick helped with the Wondership and spent the rest of the time fishing
and hunting. He managed to get a few rabbits, but there was no other
game in the vicinity. It was too barren for deer, although it was said
there were plenty of them further down the river. The young reporter,
who had quite a mechanical genius of his own, constructed a rough sort
of boat out of boards from the walls of the old shack, and used it on
his fishing expeditions, "punting" it along with a long pole made from
a willow sapling from a grove on the river bank some distance below
where they were camped.

One afternoon the fancy took him to pole up the current and round the
bend below which Masterson's boat had appeared the evening Dick saw
and recognized the son of the _Moon_ proprietor.

He had not gone that way before and was surprised to find that,
instead of the low banks that edged the river where the boys were
camped, round the bend were steep, almost clifflike acclivities on
both sid