e, and as a consequence the scene was a lively one. The
boys were quickly landed, and then from one of the dock officials
learned where they could get a train running to the capital. Their
baggage had been examined and passed upon by the usual custom officials.

"Well, this is certainly a second-rate railroad," was Dave's comment, as
they seated themselves in the stuffy coach and had the door locked upon
them. Then the train moved off at a slow rate of speed that was
tantalizing to both. With half a dozen stops, it took them nearly an
hour to reach Christiania, only eighteen miles away. Looking out of the
window, the landscape was a dreary one, of marshland on one side and
rocks on the other, all covered with ice and snow. The coach had no heat
in it, and Roger declared that his feet were half frozen.

"Puts me in mind of the time I visited a lumber camp in upper Maine," he
told his chum. "It was in the winter-time, and they only ran one train a
day, of two cars, a freight and a combination of everything else. We
were delayed on the road, almost snowed in, and I didn't thaw out for a
week afterwards."

At the railroad station in Christiania they had some trouble passing the
guard. Again their baggage was looked over, and they were taken to an
office and asked a dozen or more questions by a man who looked as if he
might be a police-inspector. What it was all about they could not make
out, but at first the officer was not inclined to let them go.

"Perhaps you had better go back to where you came from," said the man to
Dave.

"Why, what's the trouble?" demanded the youth. "I am sure I have done no
wrong."

"What brought you to Norway?"

"I am looking for my father. His name is David Porter, like my own. He
has joined the Lapham-Hausermann Expedition, bound for the interior of
Norway."

"Exactly," and the officer looked wise. "Who is this young man?"

"This is my friend, Roger Morr. He is traveling with me for company."

"You are very young to be traveling alone."

"I can't help that. I want to find my father, and do it as soon as I
can."

"Is he expecting you?"

"I don't know. I sent him a cablegram, but I do not know if he received
it."

"That expedition--do you know anything about it?" asked the officer,
shrewdly.

"No, sir--nothing more than what I saw in the English papers."

"Didn't your father tell you anything about it?"

"No, he couldn't." And Dave hesitated.

"Why?"

"Because--well, he d