ill went on, observing
the injured look on the faces of his chums, "we've always been mixed up
in some mystery, ever since the day we started out to visit the Pictured
Rocks of Old Superior. So I thought you might like one trip free of
puzzles and excitements."

"Don't you never permit us to lose sight of a mystery!" exclaimed
George. "I eat mysteries three times a day, and then dream of mysteries
at night! And Sandy," he went on, "just gets fat on mysteries!"

"All right," Will agreed. "If you want to tie your intellect all up into
knots studying out such Sherlock Holmes puzzles as come to me, I have no
objections."

"Well, we've found the cottage," George observed presently, "but we
haven't found the man."

"Perhaps Bert Calkins found him," contended Will.

"Do you really think the miner is still hanging around this cabin?"
asked Sandy. "Do you think he is the man who gave Bert the clout on the
head? If you do think so, we'd better keep a sharp lookout."

"Garman wouldn't know anything about our coming here after the plans!"
suggested George.

"Any man who steals another man's invention, or tries to steal it, will
go to almost any length to protect the thing he has stolen. Even if
Garman had no previous knowledge of our visit to this place our arrival
here would at once excite his suspicions."

"I see that now," agreed George, "and the first thing the fellow would
do would be to try to discover what we were doing here."

"Yes," continued Will, "and that would be sufficient motive for him to
attack the bearer of the code despatch."

"I guess we've got it all doped out now," laughed George. "All we've got
to do is to find this man Garman, take the original plans away from him,
mail them back to Chicago, and go on about our business."

"And the lawyers in Chicago will do the rest!" grinned Sandy.

"It looks easy, doesn't it?" suggested Will.

"Why, if this miner doesn't know anything about what we're here for, we
can tell him any story we're a mind to. We can tell him we're here on a
vacation and have money to invest in a mine, if he can find the right
kind of a mine for us," laughed George. "In twenty-four hours after we
get hold of him, we can have him eating corn out of our hands, like a
billy goat."

"You say it well!" laughed Sandy.

"That's all very well," Will agreed, "provided Garman isn't the man who
took the code despatch from Bert Calkins."

"And provided, too," George declared, "that Garma