ched sheets carelessly, and that the marks of both
thumbs showed very plainly."

"That will be a perfect defense!" said the doctor.

Cameron and Fenton who had been listening intently to the recital, now
both spoke at once:

"Were the plans really rejected by the experts?" they asked.

"They certainly were!" replied Will.

"Then we've been through all this trouble for nothing!" exclaimed
Fenton.

"If you two fellows hadn't been engaged in this dirty game," Will said
severely, "you would have been mixed up in some other dirty deal, so
you're probably no worse off than you would have been in any event."

"If you'll go to the peg driven into the wall near the north window,"
Cameron remarked, "pull out the peg and run your finger into the augur
hole, you'll find the plans rolled into a very small package."

Will rushed to the peg indicated, and the plans were soon in his hands.

"This settles it!" exclaimed Will. "The case is finished!"

"Are the thumb marks there?" asked Frank.

"Plain as the nose on your face!" replied the boy.

"And to think that they have been right under our nose all the time!"
exclaimed Tommy. "I shall certainly have to partake of a large meal
before I can recover my reason!"

"And to think that, after we came all the way to Alaska, we received the
correct tip regarding the hiding place from Chicago by wireless!"

"I know how the people at Chicago came to discover the whereabouts of
the plans," shouted Fenton. "There's a sneak of a clerk in the office
where I was employed who gave me away. He saw me looking over the plans
and betrayed me."

"Perhaps he didn't want to see you make a fool of yourself!" Will
suggested. "He probably knew the plans had been rejected."

"I'll settle with him!" declared Fenton.

"If you do," Will replied, "you'll serve a term in an Alaska prison for
abduction!"

"Yes," Fenton went on, "he probably wired the truth to Chicago after the
search for the plans began in the office! When he saw me looking over
the plans, I was obliged to tell him what they represented. I also told
him where we were going to hide the plans, and of course, he had to wire
that, too!"

"That clerk must be rewarded!" smiled Tommy.

Such a supper as the boys ate that night!

Notwithstanding the dreary predictions of Tommy, there was plenty of
provisions in the cabin, and the party feasted on the game which was
brought in as an addition to the supply until they returned to
civili