ink; and doubtless the college professor had easily made a pen from a
bird's quill. And this was what Frank read, a small portion of the
communication being missing, as though it had received rough usage
somewhere, en route:

"Whoever finds this, I pray that it be forwarded to Andrew Bird, in the
town of Bloomsbury, State of New York, U. S. A. In my balloon I was
carried away by a sudden storm while crossing the Isthmus of Panama. As
near as I can calculate I was swept some three hundred miles, more or
less, in a south-easterly direction, much of the time above the
clouds. Then something happened, and I felt myself falling. Giving
myself up for lost, I awoke from a swoon to find myself in the branches
of a tree, with the wreck of the balloon near me. A merciful Providence
has saved my life, but I fear only to prolong my agony of soul. For
months now I have been a prisoner in a remarkable valley, a sink-pit,
enclosed by inaccessible cliffs. Many times have I struggled to climb to
their top, but only to meet defeat.

"All this time I have sustained life by means of fruits that grow in
abundance in this tropical valley. In the hope that I may manage to
communicate my horrible condition to the outside world I have made
scores of small parachutes, and when the breeze at the top of the cliffs
appeared favorable, send them up by means of hot air, each carrying a
message to my son. God in His infinite wisdom only knows if one of these
will ever reach him. I shall continue to have hope, and sustain life as
long as my mind remains--

"Professor Philip B----"

When he had finished this astonishing document Frank turned to his chum.

"Oh! what a remarkable thing! I never heard its equal in all my life. To
think that your father has been alive all these months, though a
prisoner in that cliff-bordered valley! But Andy, don't you see that
now nothing is going to keep us from going down there, and finding him?
Here is the clue you wanted, only instead of discovering his sad fate
you are going to rescue him, and bring him home again!"

They reached out and gripped hands. There was something in that act to
stamp the more than brotherly feeling existing between them.

"Do you think we could do it, Frank?" exclaimed Andy, more than ever
willing that his clear-eyed chum should take the lead in this most
eventful moment of his whole young life.

"Sure I do," answered the comforter, readily. "Didn't we conquer one
battery of cliffs