agedies, actual and
impending. Those who knew were pledged to secrecy. Some day, perhaps,
when the time was ripe, America would demand with interest the debt due
from Japan. But while there could be no public recognition of Bert's
services, he cherished as one of his choicest treasures a personal letter
from the President thanking him for his splendid achievement in behalf of
the nation.

And now they were on their way home, their hearts aglow with patriotism,
after the stupendous proof of their country's genius and destiny, as
shown in the great Canal.

Wah Lee, who had been under the close watch kept on all the household,
after Bert was discovered, had escaped from the yacht, in the confusion
following the death of Namoto, and sought refuge with the boys. His
delight at finding Bert safe and sound was only second to that of Dick
and Tom. At his earnest entreaties, they had agreed to take him to
"Amelika" and look after his future fortunes. He was hobnobbing now with
some of his yellow-skinned compatriots in the steerage, while the boys
sat on the upper deck of the liner, as it drew away from Colon.

"It's a burning shame," Tom was saying, hotly. "You saved the country
from disaster, and scarcely anyone knows it."

"Yes," asserted Dick, emphatically, "your name ought to be a household
word all over the United States."

"Easy there, fellows," said Bert. "Anyone else could have done it. I
simply had the chance and took it. It was sheer luck."

"No," cried Dick. "It was sheer pluck."

He had struck the keynote of his comrade's character. And, in Bert's
later career, that quality of pluck persisted. In the field of sport it
was soon to be as prominent as in the dashing adventure through which he
had just come triumphant. How brilliantly it came to the fore in the
exciting struggle that awaited him will be seen in "_Bert Wilson's
Twin-cylinder Racer._"

The End

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bert Wilson at Panama, by J. W. Duffield

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