"I guess I'd better not answer that question," he said finally.

"I wish you would answer it," Tommy urged. "I ought to know just what motive the fellow has for throwing obstacles in my way.

"He thinks it's funny!" answered Boswell.

"That isn't the correct answer," Tommy insisted. "He has some motive for what he is trying to do. I'd like to know what that motive is."

"You can't find out from me!" declared Boswell.

"You must be a chum of his!" sneered Sam.

"I hate the ground he walks on!" replied Boswell. "I wouldn't have hired out to him at all if I hadn't been drunk. But I'm not going to repeat to any one what he told me in confidence!"

"We shall have to put you off some distance this side of Cordova," Tommy suggested, "because if we don't you're likely to make us trouble by reporting the case of alleged piracy as soon as we land."

"You needn't trouble yourself about my reporting anything," Boswell answered. "I'm not mixing with Jamison's affairs! If you boys are arrested for piracy, I'll tell all I know about it, and that won't do you any harm."

Dawn came slowly that morning, for heavy clouds were gathering in the sky. The short Arctic night came to an end at last, however, and in the murky distance the boys saw the long coast line. Shortly after three o'clock they pa.s.sed the wireless station and landed, not without some difficulty at Cordova.

They found the town asleep, of course, but after a time an early riser directed them to the residence of a surgeon. They arranged with him to meet them later in the day and at once set out for the wireless station.

It was two hours before they saw the operator coming to his post of duty.

He remembered Frank, and willingly promised to at once open communication with Seattle and take up the work of securing a duplicate of the code message. He explained that a copy had been kept, but that it had been destroyed by a careless janitor, who had said that he could make nothing at all of the jumble of words and letters!

As soon as Seattle answered the Cordova call, a duplicate of the code telegram was asked for, and Seattle undertook to place the request on the wire and cause it to be rushed through to Chicago.

"We ought to receive the answer some time this afternoon," the operator said as the boys started away.

CHAPTER XI

MAKING NEW PLANS

When the boys returned to the floating dock at which the motor boat had been tied during their absence at the station they found Boswell sitting in the cabin in a crouching att.i.tude.

"Did you get what you wanted?" he asked.

Tommy shook his head.

"Then," continued the sailor, "you'd better give over trying to get it for the present and duck away from here! You'll have trouble if you don't!"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Frank.

"Do you see the tug coming up the bay?" asked Boswell.

"Certainly!" was the reply.

"Well, she's been signalling to have this boat held until she arrives!

And the chances are that she picked up Jamison and his pirates somewhere near the island where you left them."

"Then, of course, Jamison will want us arrested for piracy?" asked Tommy tentatively. "I presume that's what it means."

"Well," Boswell replied, "when you take another man's boat and leave him afloat in a dinghy, you must expect something to come of it besides kisses. Of course you'll be arrested!"

Frank gave a long, low whistle of dismay.

"Then," he said, "we'll have to go and notify the surgeon of what's coming off and get him to go on to the cabin alone."

"Yes," Tommy added, "and we can tell him to inform the boys what's going on here. We may have to remain here for several days if we are actually arrested."

"But how about the code duplicate?" asked Sam.

"I presume that will have to remain with us unless it comes before the doctor leaves for the cabin," Tommy answered.

"Look here," Sam said, "you two boys are the fellows Jamison wants. He won't put up much of a search for me. You go back to the wireless station and tell the operator to deliver the code duplicate to me and I'll see that it gets to the cabin."

"It's all right of you to make the offer," Tommy replied, "but there's no one at the camp that can read it."

"Then why can't Frank slip away and get the message to camp?" inquired Sam.

"Will certainly ought to have it," suggested Tommy.

"I'll tell you what we'd better do," Frank advised. "We'd better make a rush for the Cordova dock before that tug gets in. Then we can arrange with the doctor to go on to the cabin by any conveyance he can secure while we take a sneak into the wilderness and get back when we can and as we can. That's better than being arrested."

"I'm for it!" declared Sam. "But how will you obtain possession of the wireless when it comes if you duck away in advance of the arrival of the tug? The message won't be here as soon as the tug is."

The boys pondered over this proposition for a moment, and then Frank came to the front with another suggestion.

"I'll go back to the wireless station," he said, "and arrange for the operator to leave the message in some secret hiding place where we can get it after nightfall."

"I don't like this fugitive-from-justice business!" exclaimed Tommy.

"I don't either," replied Frank, "but it's a long ways better than lying in some dirty old jail. We can arrange here with father's agent to find out what sort of a case they've got against us, and pick out a good lawyer to represent us, so we'll be all ready to defend ourselves when the arrest is finally made."

"Your father has an agent here?" asked Tommy, regarding Frank suspiciously. "What business is he in?"

"Oh, quit it!" replied Frank. "We haven't any time to talk about private affairs. What we've got to do right now is to find out how we're going to escape arrest at this time. I'll go and make the arrangement with the operator, and we'll all make the arrangements with the doctor, and then we three boys will start across country to the little old log cabin in the lane!"

"There ain't no lane there!" grinned Tommy.

"There may be some time, when that part of the country becomes a suburb of Cordova!" laughed Frank. "But I reckon I'd better be getting back to the wireless office. That tug's coming in hand over hand!"

The boy was back from the office inside of ten minutes, but by that time the tug was so near that the motor boat was obliged to shoot ahead at full speed in order to keep clear of her. The boys saw Jamison standing by the captain urging him to greater efforts in the speed direction, and saw him shake a huge, ham-like fist in their direction as the motor boat left the tug behind.

"I'll tell you why I want to leave the case in the hands of a lawyer here," Frank said, as the boat shot toward the Cordova dock, "Jamison doesn't want to prosecute us boys for piracy. He's interested in some way in this case you are here to handle, and he wants to keep us under lock and key until something he wants done can be accomplished."