an
communicate with Frank's father at Chicago, and so get in touch with Mr.
Horton. In this way, we can learn the contents of the code despatch.
There surely was some strong reason for sending it, and it seems as if
we ought to know its contents."

"That's a good idea, too," exclaimed Tommy. "We'll go to Katalla, and
perhaps we can find a boat about ready to sail for Cordova. In that case
we ought to get up to the wireless station and back in a couple of days.
The distance isn't great, but it's rough traveling."

"I wish we could take Bert with us," suggested Frank.

"Are you thinking of going?" asked Will.

"Yes," was the reply, "if I could take Bert out."

"Bert is in no condition to be taken out," Will answered, "and even if
he were it would take so long to make the journey that we could get a
surgeon out here before we could land him in a hospital."

"I think," Frank said, "that I ought to go with the boy who is sent out
after a surgeon. It is not certain that father will communicate by
wireless save to his son. Anyway, I can find out a great deal more by
talking with him than could any one else."

"I guess that's right!" Will replied.

"Then I'll go with him!" Tommy shouted. "I want to see what's going on
in the world of fashion, anyway!"

"All right," Will said. "Pack up your provisions and get ready to move.
Of course you'll need provisions."

"I usually do!" grinned Tommy.

The lads packed up the good supply of sandwiches and started off towards
Katalla. It was somewhere near noon when they left the cabin, and they
expected to reach the town on the coast before twilight fell, the
distance being not more than fourteen miles.

"If you don't get to town when night falls," Will warned, "don't try to
camp out in the open, but keep going until you find some human
habitation. You remember what happened to Bert!"

"Any one who comes within a half a mile of me in a lonely place," Tommy
put in, "will scrape the acquaintance of a bullet."

"And here's another thing," Will advised, "don't travel without a wet
cloth or a bunch of green leaves inside your hat. It'll be ninety in the
shade before the afternoon is over!"

"Yes, and a hundred in the sun!" declared Sandy.

"That's a nice weather for the Arctic regions, isn't it?" asked Frank.

"We have to take it just as we find it!" replied Will.

The boys started away on a brisk walk, and were accompanied by their
chums some distance down the faint trail w