n in
the lane!"

"There ain't no lane there!" grinned Tommy.

"There may be some time, when that part of the country becomes a suburb
of Cordova!" laughed Frank. "But I reckon I'd better be getting back to
the wireless office. That tug's coming in hand over hand!"

The boy was back from the office inside of ten minutes, but by that time
the tug was so near that the motor boat was obliged to shoot ahead at
full speed in order to keep clear of her. The boys saw Jamison standing
by the captain urging him to greater efforts in the speed direction, and
saw him shake a huge, ham-like fist in their direction as the motor boat
left the tug behind.

"I'll tell you why I want to leave the case in the hands of a lawyer
here," Frank said, as the boat shot toward the Cordova dock, "Jamison
doesn't want to prosecute us boys for piracy. He's interested in some
way in this case you are here to handle, and he wants to keep us under
lock and key until something he wants done can be accomplished."

"I'm sure that's right!" Tommy answered.

"I don't know much about this thumb-print case," Frank went on, "but I
believe that this man Jamison is trying to make sure that you boys don't
get hold of the drawings you are looking for. Of course I have no proof,
but I'm sure that, in the long run, you'll find that I'm right?"

The motor boat made such good time in the run for the Cordova dock that
the tug was nearly out of sight when the boys climbed into the main
street of the town.

"Now," Tommy said, as they all stood together at the principal business
place of the town, "Frank can go and make sure that the doctor will
start for the cabin immediately, and Sam and I will go and buy
provisions for the cross country trip. We may be two or three days in
making it, and we'll surely want to eat on the way."

"But we can't get the wireless until night!" urged Frank. "He's going to
bring it to Cordova tonight and leave it in the old blacksmith shop just
back of the line of store buildings."

"Well, we can get all ready to go," Tommy urged. "We don't want to take
any chances on being pinched just as we get ready to leave!"

"We'll meet at the old shop in half an hour," Frank suggested, "and then
we can make all the plans necessary."

Tommy noticed that afternoon that a strange fatality seemed to accompany
all of Jamison's efforts to cause the arrest of the boys. First, there
was no Federal officer in the town. Next, there was no judicial or