iculty.

"Never mind, Hal," said Cub with his bravest effort at consolation; "if
the prisoner on this island was your cousin, we'll follow those enemies
of his to the end of the world and make them give him up, won't we, dad?"

"Don't you worry too much over this affair, Hal," urged Mr. Perry by way
of response to his son's extravagant assurance. "If the person you got
those messages from was your cousin, I don't believe the fellows who were
after him had reason to do him any serious harm. But you may be sure that
we will not leave a stone unturned in an effort to solve this--this--"

"Mystery," suggested Cub mischievously grasping at the opportunity to
give his father a good-natured dig.

"Call it what you wish," smiled Mr. Perry. "But under any name you may be
pleased to style this problem, we are going to go after it with some more
mathematics--"

"And geography," interposed Cub.

"Yes, and geography, and you boys know what success we have had with
mathematics and geography in this search of ours thus far. Now,
meanwhile, I'm going to make a new suggestion which I hope you boys will
look upon with favor. Let's establish a camp of our own right here on the
spot where the Canadian Crusoe had his camp."

CHAPTER XII

Hal's Discovery

The boys were delighted with the suggestion of Mr. Perry that they
establish a camp on the island and needed no urging to begin work on the
project. With true outing instinct they had come prepared for just such
an emergency as this. They had brought with them a tent large enough for
four and a complete set of camp tools, including spade, shovel, axe,
pickaxe, hatchet, saw, hammer, and nails.

Returning to the Catwhisker, they hauled all these supplies out on deck
preparatory to taking them ashore.

"Let's make a better ascent up this steep bank before we carry these
things up," Mr. Perry proposed. "It's quite a climb, as it is, without a
load in our arms to hamper us."

"Only one person can work at a time to any advantage," Bud suggested.

"That's true," replied the director of the expedition. "But we can work
in rapid shifts and finish this job quickly. I'll take the first trick
and make things fly for about fifteen minutes, and then one of you can
take my place."

With these words, he stripped off his coat, seized the pickaxe and shovel
and stepped over the side of the boat onto the landing ledge. Then he
began a vigorous attack on the steep incline between the l