"If you had come to me with this story the minute Jamison began
to rave about arrest, you wouldn't have been put to all this
inconvenience."

"I think," grinned Frank, "that Jamison ought to pay us back the three
hundred dollars, because he never brought us to Cordova at all, and even
if he had, he wouldn't have earned the money until he returned us to
Katalla. He ought not to keep the money."

"That's a fact!" exclaimed the officer with a smile at the boy. "I'll go
down to the jail and make him give it back."

The officer started away, and Tommy and Sam sat in the carriage
regarding Frank with wide open eyes.

"Say, who is that kid?" Tommy asked.

"I don't know," replied Sam.

"Did you notice that any time he said anything to the officer that the
officer just fell right in with his ideas?"

"Sure I did," was the reply.

"And did you notice how the doctor paid special attention to every
remark he made?"

"I couldn't help but notice it," was the reply.

"Well, that kid's got these fellows up here buffaloed all right," Tommy
declared. "And that being the case, I wonder why he didn't use some of
his influence hours ago and get us started on the road to Katalla."

"I give it up!" Sam replied.

Frank and the doctor stood talking together for a few moments, and then
the federal officer returned and handed two hundred dollars in bank
notes over to Frank.

"Jamison thinks he ought to have a hundred dollars because he paid the
tug for bringing him and his crew in," the officer said, "and because
he's going to let you run his motor boat up to Katalla."

"What do you know about that?" whispered Sam.

"I'll bet that boy's father is president of the United States," replied
Tommy. "Or he may be king of England."

"Whoever he is, he's got a pull," replied Sam.

"Drag!" exclaimed Tommy. "Whenever a man's got a dead sure cinch like
that, it's a drag and not a pull!"

"Well," the doctor said, "we're losing time! We may as well go to the
wireless office and get our code message. I presume it's ready for
delivery by this time."

"It's about time we were thinking about that boy with his head in a
sling, too!" Tommy suggested.

"It won't take us long to get there now," Doctor Pelton remarked.

The Gulf of Alaska was remarkably smooth, when the vicious habits of
that body of water are taken into consideration, and the boys made the
run to Katalla without accident in little less than three hours,
arriving at the flo