after Hal had
finished reading the diary. "The chief problem now remaining to be solved
is, what became of your cousin?"

"In other words, that's the mystery before us," said Bud, with a twinkle
of fun in his eyes.

"Call it what you will," smiled Mr. Perry. "But it doesn't strike me as
in the least mysterious. Evidently he was taken away from this island by
the fellows who put him here."

"And what did they do with him?" was the query with which Cub
supplemented his father's observation.

"That, of course, we don't know," the latter replied. "They may have
taken him over to the Canadian shore and released him for reasons of
their own."

"Then it's up to us to find out," Cub inferred.

"Surely. We've had remarkable success thus far. It would be a pity for us
to meet with failure. That would spoil our story."

"Story!" exclaimed Bud. "What story?"

"Our story--the one we've been enacting thus far. Look back over our
experiences in the last two days and see if you can make anything but a
very fascinating yarn out of them."

"It's a radio-college story, isn't it?" Hal suggested.

"Yes," Mr. Perry agreed; "that would be one good way to put it."

"If it didn't involve my cousin in a critical situation, I'd hope the
story wouldn't end yet," said Hal. "I'd like to see it run thirty or
forty chapters."

"How many chapters do you figure it would make thus far?" asked the
director-general of the expedition with a look of keen interest.

"Oh, about ten or fifteen," Hal replied.

"Then, to suit your taste, it ought to be only about half finished."

"Yes, but for my cousin's sake, I wish it were finished right now and
Alvin were safe with us or at home."

"But wishes won't produce results nor cut off chapters," Cub
philosophised.

"No, the denouement will work itself out along natural lines under
natural laws," Mr. Perry predicted.

"I don't think this story is going to amount to anything as a yarn," Cub
announced with a look of superior wisdom.

"Why not?" asked his father.

"Because there's no villain in it. I never did like a story with a tame
ending, and the worst kind of a story on earth is one that starts with a
thrill and ends with a nap in a sunparlor."

Laughter greeted this grotesque contrast.

"I don't think you need expect any such up-shot in this affair," Mr.
Perry advised.

"Do you expect a villain to show his hand?" Bud inquired.

"It seems to me that we have some villains in the plot a