oth Juarez's head
and foot bandaged in a way that gave him comparative relief.

"Now," said the professor, "tell us about Jim."

Whereupon Juarez told briefly of his journey that afternoon, and how,
when trying to observe the approach of some strangers, he had fallen,
and then he repeated the conversation he had overheard, and told how he
had tried to get back to the shore in time to warn Jim of the impending
danger. All listened intently and Tom could not avoid an occasional
interruption to express his opinion of the steward.

"The villain!" cried Tom between his teeth, in a tone that boded ill for
the man.

"You were evidently right," the professor reluctantly admitted, "the man
is a traitor."

"I hope we catch him," cried Jo.

"Come on, now," says Tom, starting up.

"Where are you going?" asked the professor.

"To help Jim. If you will stay with Juarez, Jo and I will follow up his
trail," responded Tom.

This seemed feasible and wise and aided by some instructions given by
Juarez they were in a measure able to make good progress. They soon came
upon a place where there were evidences of a struggle, and here they
carefully searched about and called loudly, but got no response.

But one inference was possible, Jim had been overpowered by a superior
force and made prisoner; so they reluctantly returned to the professor
with this report.

"We can't do anything more to-night," determined the professor. "It is
too late. If there are enemies about under cover of darkness they have
every advantage. I think our best plan would be to go back to the Storm
King and make our plans for to-morrow. With a night's rest, Juarez will
be in shape to help us, and we will have Berwick, too."

"But they may kill Jim before morning," objected Tom.

"I don't think there is any danger of that," replied the professor.
"They would not have bothered to take him prisoner if any harm were
intended. If we went on now, even if we knew what direction to take, we
would only be working in the dark, literally and figuratively. We will
have to reconnoitre a little first and plan accordingly."

"I don't know but what you are right," admitted Tom, very reluctantly,
"but it doesn't seem the right thing to do to leave Jim that way."

"Festina lenta, Tom," rejoined the professor. "You remember the old
proverb, 'Make haste slowly.' We'll do more by not trying to do things
too quickly. We will go back and get ready for to-morrow."

"What do