Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 91: The Lost Cache — page 27: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FORTY WHAT ? 29 only ascertain by experiment, and we must postpone our ex- periments until morning. As we cay do nothing more at pres- ent, we had better -go to sleep, so that we will be ready for work to-morrow,” The important map was rolled up, and the two young’men rolled themselves up in their blankets, and were soon lost in slumber, leaving Farrar and Green to keep watch alter- nately. In the morning they were up quite as early as the sun was, for life on the prairie is not favorable to late rising, and soon commenced their operations, which appeared very mysterious to Farrar and Green, who had not been initiated into the se- cret of the hidden treasure. With a pocket-compass and a Gunter’s chain, they mea- sured forty chains due west, and then carefully examined a line, at that distance from the river, and parallel with it for more than a mile, north and south, but they saw no spring nor any indication of one. Returning to the camp, they measured forty rods in the same manner, and made a similar examina- tion along another line; but there was no sign of a spring, In order to be fully satisfied, they mounted their horses, and rode around the country, within a half-circuit of four or five miles, examining the ground attentively, and traversing it in every direction ; still, there was no spring, nothing but the rolling prairie, a few scattered belts and clumps of timber, and two little water-courses, neither of which had its rise in a spring. Completely tired out, greatly disappointed, and. almost dis- heartened, they returned to camp, in quiteabad humor. They again unrolled the map, and studied it carefully, but without eliciting any thing new. In fact, the more they studied it, the more disgusted they became with themselves and their search. “T suppose our wonder is at an end now,” said Harry Che- nault, peevishly throwing the paper aside. “We need not bother ourselves any more to guess whether that figure 40 means forty feet, forty chains, forty rods, forty furlongs, or forty miles, for we have tried every measure we know of, and have not smelt a spring. Hither we have hit upon 1 the wrong point of beginning, or the map is nothing but a humbug.” “So it seems, my boy; but Iam surprised that you, who connicloooks.comn