"First good sleep I've had in a week!" he said.

"Did you sleep all the afternoon?" asked Will.

"I guess I did!"

"Hear any one around the cabin?"

"How could I, when I was sound asleep?"

"Well," Will went on, "while you were having that fine sleep, some one came to the cabin and carried off Bert Calkins!"

"What are you talking about?" demanded George.

"Look in his bunk and see!" advised Sandy.

"How was it ever done?" demanded George.

"I'm not asking how it was done," Will returned. "What I want to know is: Why was it done? What object could any one have in carrying away that kid? I wouldn't believe he was gone if I didn't see the empty bunk."

"It's something connected with that code message!" Sandy suggested.

"I've got it!" replied Will. "The man took the message away before he knew whether he could read it or not. When he found he couldn't read it, he came back to get Bert to read it for him."

"But Bert is in no condition to be kept prisoner," George insisted. "He won't give the information the man seeks, and the man will probably mistreat him because he can't! What we've got to do is to get a move on and find the boy before he is starved or beaten to death."

"That's just what we've got to do!" agreed Will. "We've got to drop everything until we find that boy!"

CHAPTER VII

A LOST "BULLDOG"

"How much do you know about this case?" asked Tommy of Frank, as the two stumbled over the uneven moraine.

"How much do I know about what?" asked Frank.

"Why, this case that your father talked with you about when he used the wireless; the case referred to in the code message."

"Why, I know that you boys are out here in search of the print of a man's right thumb!" laughed Frank.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, I know a little more than that. I know that two men are soon to be tried for burglary, and that the discovery of the thumb marks is quite essential to a successful defense."

"Did your father tell you all that?"

"Oh, we talked quite a lot by wireless."

Tommy considered the situation for a moment and then said:

"I wish you'd tell me all you know about it."

In as few words as possible, Frank related the story practically as told to George and Sandy by Will.

"Does Bert know all about this?" asked Tommy when the recital was finished. "Did you talk the matter over with him?"

"I certainly did."

"I hope," Tommy mused, "that he wasn't forced to tell anything about the thumb marks when the man robbed him."

"I don't think he would do that," suggested Frank. "He would be apt to plead ignorance."

The boys came, about nine in the evening, to the little station of Katalla, which is just a mite of a town sitting perched high above the Gulf of Alaska. The first thing they did was to make inquiries at the water front regarding transportation to Cordova.

As they pa.s.sed swiftly from point to point, consulting a half-breed here, an Esquimaux there, and an American trader at another point, they noticed that they were being followed. Finally Tommy drew back and waited until the man who seemed to be pursuing them came up.

"Are you looking for me?" he asked.

"I would like to speak with you," was the reply.

"Well, then, why didn't you come up like a man and say so?" demanded Tommy. "You needn't have skulked along in the dark!"

"Fact is," the man answered, "that I heard you making inquiries regarding the possibility of getting to Cordova tonight."

"Yes, that's where we want to go."

"Have you secured transportation yet?"

"We have not!" Tommy answered.

"Well, I was going to let you inquire at one more place," said the other, "and then tender you the use of my boat."

"Why were you going to wait?"

"Because I wanted you to exhaust your last chance so that I could get my own price for the service."

"You must be a Yankee!" laughed Tommy.

"Right!" was the reply. "I'm a Yankee direct from Boston. I don't have many opportunities of acquiring wealth out here, and I smelt real money as soon as I saw you boys come to town a couple of days ago."

"What kind of a boat have you?" asked Tommy.

"A swift little motor boat."

"Can you get us to Cordova and back by seven or eight in the morning?"