"This is all a faked-up story you are telling me!" Fenton shouted.

"Whoever wired you that the plans were in the cabin didn't know what he was talking about! We don't know anything about the plans."

"That doesn't agree with what Cameron just said," Frank laughed.

"Cameron doesn't know anything about the plans, either," raged Fenton.

"Are you the clerk who stole the plans from your employer?" asked Will.

"I tell you that I don't know anything about any plans!" stormed Fenton.

"Cameron and I are prospecting this moraine for gold, and we have no interest in any plans whatever!"

"And yet Cameron gave Bert a crack on the coco and stole the code message!" suggested Will.

"He probably thought the message referred to our mining properties!"

declared Fenton. "We had a right to suppose it had."

"Then you won't tell us where the plans are?" demanded Will.

"I tell you that I don't know anything about the plans," screamed Fenton. "I never saw the plans."

"All right," Will replied. "We'll leave you fellows out here to think the matter over. By morning you will probably know where the plans are hidden. The mosquitos may be able to convince you."

"A little meditation may refresh his memory," Frank said.

"What have you got to do about it, anyhow?" demanded Cameron. "I don't think you've got any right to b.u.t.t in here!"

"Who is that freshie?" asked Fenton.

"Frank Disbrow," replied the doctor with a smile. "He's the son of the military officer in charge of the military stations in Alaska."

The boys all turned and regarded Frank curiously.

"So that's why the walls all fell down when you knocked!" exclaimed Tommy. "That's why the federal officer refused to make any arrests.

That's why Jamison returned the money and gave us the use of his motor boat. I begin to understand some of the things that took place at Cordova now. Why didn't you tell us something about it before we had all that trouble?"

"Oh, I didn't want to mix father up in the combination," Frank replied with a smile. "Besides," he added, "it did look something like piracy."

"It certainly did," observed Doctor Pelton. "If Frank hadn't been a member of the pirate crew, I rather imagine that you boys would be cooling your heels in some Alaska prison about now. Of course, you would have been released in time, but the affair would have made you considerable trouble."

"Who's Bert, then?" demanded Tommy.

"Bert is the son of a prominent federal official at Chicago," replied Frank. "But we've had enough of this," the boy declared modestly. "I didn't do any more than any other boy would have done."

"You undertook that long trip out to the cabin when you didn't have to!"

exclaimed Will. "That was good of you!"

CHAPTER XXII

THE PLANS AT LAST

With a parting glance at Cameron and Fenton, the boys, accompanied by the doctor, turned away in the direction of the cabin.

"Wait!" shouted Fenton. "Don't go off and leave us in this plight! We'll starve to death if you do!"

"What about those plans?" demanded Will.

"I'll help you find the plans!" screamed Cameron. "I'll see that you get the plans; if you get us out of this sc.r.a.pe!"

"Keep still!" commanded Fenton.

"I refuse to keep still!" declared Cameron. "I'm not going to be left here to be devoured by insects. Tell me the truth about the plans," he went on, "what do you want of them?"

"We want to introduce the plans in evidence in the criminal court at Chicago," replied Will.

"And that will betray our secret," commented Fenton fiercely. "Those plans are worth millions of dollars to us! They represent the only perfect mining machine ever invented."

"We don't care anything about your mining machine," Will answered.

"Have you noticed anything peculiar about the plans?" Frank asked.

"Nothing except that they are dirty!" was the reply.

"Marked up with thumb prints, for instance?"

"Yes, there are thumb prints," replied Cameron.

"Well, we want the thumb prints," Frank laughed.

"You're a fool if you listen to any such arguments!" screamed Fenton.

"Why should these gutter snipes want the papers for the thumb prints?"

"That's what we want them for!" insisted Frank. "Are you going to tell us where the plans are?"

"I'll tell you!" replied Cameron.

Fenton turned his back on his friend and refused to discuss the question further. When the lads started away carrying Cameron on a rude litter, they left his follow conspirator lying by the fire.

"Please bring him along," pleaded Cameron. "He'll die if you leave him there! I can tell you where the plans are, and I'll do so, whether he likes it or not. This has been a misunderstanding all around. We were only trying to protect our interest in the mines which we believed to exist in this neighborhood, and in the plans, which we believed to be very valuable!"

Thus urged, the boys turned back and constructed a second stretcher for Fenton. The journey to the cabin was a long one, but the shelter was reached about daylight. Then Tommy at once began the preparation of breakfast.

"We'll have to get out pretty soon," Will laughed, "because the population of this county seems to be increasing with amazing rapidity.

At the present time we have four Beavers, two Foxes, and two Bulldogs besides a very eminent surgeon. In other words," the boy went on, "we have this collection of wild animals in addition to a very eminent surgeon and two men with busted legs. If some one doesn't bring in provisions pretty soon, we'll have to exist on mosquito soup!"

"The mosquitos have been living off us long enough!" Tommy answered.