for the sake of the argument that
there were three men there, and that the man who says he wasn't there is
lying about it--were looking over a set of plans for a new machine which
the company was arranging to manufacture."

"I've got you now!" laughed Sandy. "The thumb print of the third man was
left on the drawings!"

"That's the idea," admitted Will. "The two men say that they were not a
little annoyed during the course of the evening because this man,
Babcock, persisted in pawing over the plans with dirty hands. They
declare that the marks of both thumbs are to be seen on drawings, not in
plain dust and grime, but in ink."

"He must have spilled the ink," suggested George.

"That's what they say," Will replied.

"Well, go on!" urged George.

"The statement is made by the two accused men that they worked over the
plans until after midnight, and that they left this man Babcock at the
office when they went to their homes. Babcock denied that he was in the
office at all that night."

"Where are the plans?" asked George.

"In Alaska," answered Will.

"But whereabouts in Alaska?"

Will looked at the boy quizzically for a moment before he answered.

"That's just what we're here to find out!" he finally said.

"But why, when, where, how?" began the boy.

"One at a time!" laughed Will. "On the morning following the robbery,
the plans having been rejected by the two men who were accused of
robbing the safe, were sent to a mining company having an office at
Cordova. So far as the defense is concerned, they have never been seen
since that time."

"Were they actually sent?" demanded George.

"Yes, they were sent. The manager of the mining company admits having
received them. He says they were turned over to a clerk for examination.
From the time they passed into the hands of this clerk, no one had seen
them. The clerk says he never had them."

"Do the manager and the clerk know what the defense in the robbery case
expects to prove by the papers if they can be secured?" asked George.

"They are not supposed to know," Will answered.

"But you think that they may know, for all that?"

"At the time of leaving Chicago, I had no idea that there would be any
trouble at all in securing the plans. In fact, until Bert was found
lying on our floor last night, I believed that we should discover the
papers as soon as we came upon one Len Garman, a miner who has, against
the advice of his friends, been prospecting in th