he reply.

"And your chum?" asked Will.

"Bert Calkins, Fox Patrol, Chicago."

"Do you mean to tell me that you have followed us boys from Chicago?"
asked George. "You've had a long chase if you have done so!"

"No," answered Frank, "we were very much surprised, one day, to receive
a wireless telegram from my father, who is connected in various business
operations with Lawyer Horton. The wireless stated that father had work
for us to do in Alaska, and the result of it all was that we received a
long message in code from Mr. Horton."

"In code?" asked Will, excitedly.

"Exactly! In code."

"In whose code?" asked Will.

"Father's," was the reply.

"I see," said Will. "And you, of course, understand your father's code?"

"Certainly!" was the answer.

"What did the message in code say?" asked George.

"It was addressed to Will Smith," was the answer, "and I, following
instructions, did not translate it."

"The message to you simply requested the delivery of the code message?"
asked Will.

"Yes, that's all it told us to do."

"Do you know what the code message contained?" asked Will.

"I do not!" was the reply. "You see," the boy went on, "Bert Calkins and
I were at Cordova on a vacation. If the wireless message had been two
hours later it would have found us on the way to Cook Inlet."

"Just traveling about for the fun of the thing, eh?" asked George.

"That's the idea," replied Frank.

"Perhaps we'd better return to the cabin before we get the history of
this boy's life," suggested George, with a grin. "I don't like the way
these mosquitos howl about my ears. I'm afraid they'll devour the net
and begin on me."

"The cabin?" repeated Frank. "Did you find the cabin?"

"Sure we did," answered George. "And we left the cabin for an hour or so
last night, and when we came back we found a member of the Fox Patrol
asleep on the floor."

"So that's where Bert went, is it?" asked Frank. "You see," the boy went
on, "I got separated from Bert just this side of Katalla. He loitered
behind to view the scenery, or something of that sort, and I came on
ahead."

"And he never caught up with you?" asked George.

"He never did," was the reply, "although I saw him at different times
during yesterday. I thought he headed off in this direction, and so came
here. I've had rather a bad night looking for him."

"He had the code message addressed to Will?" asked George.

"Yes," was the reply.

"The untranslated c