Chapter XXII
Reading edition
THE PLANS AT LAST
With a parting glance at Cameron and Fenton, the boys, accompanied by the doctor, turned away in the direction of the cabin.
"Wait!" shouted Fenton. "Don't go off and leave us in this plight! We'll starve to death if you do!"
"What about those plans?" demanded Will.
"I'll help you find the plans!" screamed Cameron. "I'll see that you get the plans; if you get us out of this scrape!"
"Keep still!" commanded Fenton.
"I refuse to keep still!" declared Cameron. "I'm not going to be left here to be devoured by insects. Tell me the truth about the plans," he went on, "what do you want of them?"
"We want to introduce the plans in evidence in the criminal court at Chicago," replied Will.
"And that will betray our secret," commented Fenton fiercely. "Those plans are worth millions of dollars to us! They represent the only perfect mining machine ever invented."
"We don't care anything about your mining machine," Will answered.
"Have you noticed anything peculiar about the plans?" Frank asked.
"Nothing except that they are dirty!" was the reply.
"Marked up with thumb prints, for instance?"
"Yes, there are thumb prints," replied Cameron.
"Well, we want the thumb prints," Frank laughed.
"You're a fool if you listen to any such arguments!" screamed Fenton. "Why should these gutter snipes want the papers for the thumb prints?"
"That's what we want them for!" insisted Frank. "Are you going to tell us where the plans are?"
"I'll tell you!" replied Cameron.
Fenton turned his back on his friend and refused to discuss the question further. When the lads started away carrying Cameron on a rude litter, they left his follow conspirator lying by the fire.
"Please bring him along," pleaded Cameron. "He'll die if you leave him there! I can tell you where the plans are, and I'll do so, whether he likes it or not. This has been a misunderstanding all around. We were only trying to protect our interest in the mines which we believed to exist in this neighborhood, and in the plans, which we believed to be very valuable!"
Thus urged, the boys turned back and constructed a second stretcher for Fenton. The journey to the cabin was a long one, but the shelter was reached about daylight. Then Tommy at once began the preparation of breakfast.
"We'll have to get out pretty soon," Will laughed, "because the population of this county seems to be increasing with amazing rapidity. At the present time we have four Beavers, two Foxes, and two Bulldogs besides a very eminent surgeon. In other words," the boy went on, "we have this collection of wild animals in addition to a very eminent surgeon and two men with busted legs. If some one doesn't bring in provisions pretty soon, we'll have to exist on mosquito soup!"
"The mosquitos have been living off us long enough!" Tommy answered. "They ought not to find fault if we begin living off them!"
"I heard you boys talking about thumb prints on a set of plans," Doctor Pelton said, addressing Will. "I'd like to know what it all means."
"The story is soon told," Will answered. "On a night in Chicago not long ago, three men, Spaulding, Hurley and Babcock, worked until nearly daylight on the plans which we came to Alaska to find. They are experts in their line and were examining the plans of an invention which the inventor claimed would revolutionize mining.
"The three men rejected the plans as impractical, and Spaulding and Hurley left for home, leaving Babcock at the office. After the departure of the two men, the company's safe was broken open and robbed of a large sum of money. Naturally the men who had worked in the office during the night were questioned concerning the disappearance of the cash. Spaulding and Hurley replied, truthfully, that they had left Babcock in the office and that the safe was intact at the time of their departure.
"Babcock's reply to this statement was that he had not been at the office that night at all, and that he could furnish a perfect alibi which he proceeded to do. Spaulding and Hurley were arrested and thrown into prison, while Babcock, secure in his fraudulent alibi, was not even suspected until Mr. Horton, a noted criminal lawyer, was retained by the two respondents.
"In discussing the case, Spaulding and Hurley explained how Babcock had participated in the discussion of the plans, and added that if the plans could be found, his thumb marks would be noted on the paper. They said he handled the attached sheets carelessly, and that the marks of both thumbs showed very plainly."
"That will be a perfect defense!" said the doctor.
Cameron and Fenton who had been listening intently to the recital, now both spoke at once:
"Were the plans really rejected by the experts?" they asked.
"They certainly were!" replied Will.
"Then we've been through all this trouble for nothing!" exclaimed Fenton.
"If you two fellows hadn't been engaged in this dirty game," Will said severely, "you would have been mixed up in some other dirty deal, so you're probably no worse off than you would have been in any event."
"If you'll go to the peg driven into the wall near the north window," Cameron remarked, "pull out the peg and run your finger into the augur hole, you'll find the plans rolled into a very small package."
Will rushed to the peg indicated, and the plans were soon in his hands.
"This settles it!" exclaimed Will. "The case is finished!"
"Are the thumb marks there?" asked Frank.
"Plain as the nose on your face!" replied the boy.
"And to think that they have been right under our nose all the time!" exclaimed Tommy. "I shall certainly have to partake of a large meal before I can recover my reason!"
"And to think that, after we came all the way to Alaska, we received the correct tip regarding the hiding place from Chicago by wireless!"
"I know how the people at Chicago came to discover the whereabouts of the plans," shouted Fenton. "There's a sneak of a clerk in the office where I was employed who gave me away. He saw me looking over the plans and betrayed me."
"Perhaps he didn't want to see you make a fool of yourself!" Will suggested. "He probably knew the plans had been rejected."
"I'll settle with him!" declared Fenton.
"If you do," Will replied, "you'll serve a term in an Alaska prison for abduction!"
"Yes," Fenton went on, "he probably wired the truth to Chicago after the search for the plans began in the office! When he saw me looking over the plans, I was obliged to tell him what they represented. I also told him where we were going to hide the plans, and of course, he had to wire that, too!"
"That clerk must be rewarded!" smiled Tommy.
Such a supper as the boys ate that night!
Notwithstanding the dreary predictions of Tommy, there was plenty of provisions in the cabin, and the party feasted on the game which was brought in as an addition to the supply until they returned to civilization.
They were obliged to bridge the chasm in order to reach Katalla, where they found the Jamison motor boat waiting for them.
They also found the wheelsman, Boswell, waiting for them there, he having made the trip from Cordova in a tug. At the request of Jamison, who had been released after the departure of the boys, he had made the journey in order to take possession of the motor boat.
When, after many delightful trips about the Gulf of Alaska, the Boy Scouts all turned their faces homeward, the wheelsman was left in charge of the boat. They afterwards learned that Jamison never claimed the craft, and that Boswell retained undisputed possession of it.
Doctor Pelton saw that Cameron and Fenton were well cared for on their arrival at Katalla, and a handsome present was sent to the federal officer by Frank Disbrow.
Frank and Bert accompanied the Boy Scouts to Chicago and later on became very warm friends. The two members of the Fox patrol, Sam White and Ed Hannon, traveled with tho boys as far as Portland.
When the boys reached Chicago, Babcock was arrested and the unmistakable thumb prints secured the immediate release of Hurley and Spaulding.
"There's one thing we've forgotten," Tommy said as the boys landed in Chicago, one autumn morning.
"What's that?" asked Will.
"We neglected to bring back that bear hide!"
"I should think you'd want that bear hide!" laughed Frank.
"I should think you'd be ashamed to look the bear in the face!" declared Sandy.
The boys received the promised reward for the discovery of the plans and once more settled down in Chicago to take up their studies.