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 the 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.
THE END.
BLACK ART IN CINCINNATI
Mr. Quinsey of Cincinnati was not an Apollo; neither had he ever assumed
a name other than his own. He had never conducted a scheme to defraud by
use of the mails; nor had he ever robbed a post-office or shot any body;
yet his character is so interesting that I cannot, in justice to myself,
omit a passing notice.
Quinsey was known as a mesmerist, a ventriloquist, an illusionist, a
prestidigitator and a master of the Black Art, and occasionally in
"pleasing sorcery that charms the sense" he would entertain audiences at
church fairs, picnics and the like for simple fees, while he found much
pleasure amusing friends gratuitously at their homes, at his home and
sometimes at his place of business.
One evening, at a little entertainment given by himself in neighboring
Glendale, after he had knocked the spots off of several decks of cards;
after he had taken half a dozen watches that belonged to people in the
audience from the janitor's pocket; after he had received communications
from departed spirits; after he had removed the head from a beautiful
woman and had made the removed head talk; after he had paralyzed four
men and a woman on the stage and had allowed the committee to stick pins
in them, and after the curtain had dropped, one of the awe-stricken
auditors, who had been instrumental in introducing Mr. Quinsey in
Glendale, asked the wonderful magician why he did not follow this
business in preference to any other?
The professor smiled blandly and appeared silent, but a voice that
seemed to come from the bakery underneath the hall, was heard to remark
in a deep melodious tone: "He has something better."
Quinsey was superintendent of what was known as the night set in the
registry division of the Cincinnati post-office, and his hours of labor
were from 10:30 P. M. to 7 A. M. In this set were employed six or seven
clerks who worked under the superintendant's direction, and who
performed practically the same kind of work that he did. It was their
duty to properly record all registered matter that arrived in Cincinnati
between 4 P. M. and midnight from the various railroad lines centering
there, rebill it and pouch it in the through registry pouches to be
dispatched in the morning.
There were something like thirty bills to make out, and the same number
of pouches to properly close and send out. When the mails were running
heavy the clerks never had a minute to spare, but when they were light,
as they frequently were one or two nights each week, there was some
opportunity for sociability and innocent amusement.
On these occasions Quinsey would sometimes tell the boys how easy it was
for people to be mistaken; how much quicker was the hand than the eye;
how it was that frequently things were not what they appeared; how easy
it was to deceive the keenest intellect by doing something different
than your actions would indicate, and how figures and objects are
materialized and made to do their master's bidding.
Sometimes he would illuminate his ideas by a few practical
illustrations, and after the young men had seen him shake any number of
big silver dollars, a wheelbarrow full of handkerchiefs, and a lot of
lanterns from a common gesture, and, in transfixed amazement, had beheld
ordinary registered letters vanish before their eyes, without being able
to tell where they went, they longed for the nights to come when the
work was light. Quinsey was immense!
About this time, while in Chicago, Kidder came to me for conference with
an armful of documentary evidence of skillful depredations. Here were
the envelopes in which registered letters had from time to time been
mailed at offices in Southern Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West
Virginia, addressed to offices in all portions of the great Northwest,
and which had been rifled of large portions of their contents. Everyone
of the letters had passed through the Chicago post-office, where they
had been handled during the night time. At first glance one would say it
surely indicated trouble in Chicago.
But why, if the thief was in Chicago, did he confine himself to
operations on the letters from this particular section, when he could
probably have access to those from any other as well. A few minutes
later when we discovered that everyone of the letters referred to had
also passed through the Cincinnati office, and in every instance had
been dispatched from that office in the morning in through pouches to
Chicago, Kidder adjusted his eye-glasses, and offered as a reward, for
the capture of the villain, a claim near that beautiful miniature
salt-water sea, known as Devil's Lake in Dakota.
On the following morning when I tapped Herrick on the shoulder in
Cincinnati, and asked who wrote the Chicago registry bills at night that
were dispatched in the morning, he answered, "Quinsey," and seemed so
amused at my question that he asked why I wanted to know.
"For the reason that I think whoever is doing it is too inquisitive."
"Well, if its Quinsey, I am afraid we'll have our hands full to catch
him, for he's just a little bit the slickest man in America. He does all
the seemingly impossible things ever heard of, and he does them right
before your eyes, too. Quinsey is absolutely marvelous. Why, one night I
was in the registry room looking around when, suddenly, I discovered my
watch was gone. I had looked to see what time it was when I entered.
Well, a little later somebody found it in the Boston pouch, with a tag
on it marked: 'Covington.'"
"Yes," said Salmon, who was listening, "and I understand he charms
birds, too; while somebody told me a few days ago that at cards he was
so expert that nobody would sit in with him; that when it came his deal
he could hold anything he wanted; that the high cards, figuratively
speaking, would come to him in carriages; and remain till after the
show-down."
The next day I went to Lexington, Ky., and while there I wrote a letter
to Mr. Abram Hayden, of Aberdeen, Dakota, on one of the letter-head
sheets of Mills, Jackson & Johnson, which read as follows:
"Dear friend Abe:
Jim Turner was in from East Hickman half an
hour ago and left the enclosed $200 for me to send to
you, and he said you would know how to use it. He
has just sold a car-load of mules to Springer, of Cincinnati,
but he said he believed there was more profit
in loaning money at 20 per cent. in Dakota, than there
was in raising mules in Kentucky at present prices.
Say, Abe, when are you coming back after Mary?
I heard Min. Stevens and some of the girls in her set
say it was considered a sure thing. Hope it is; for of
all the real fine blue-grass girls around these parts I
think Mary is the----well never mind, old boy, if
I wasn't married I'd try and prevent her going to
Dakota. You better hurry up.
Jim just stuck his head in the door and told me to
tell you if you couldn't get a gilt edge loan at 20, not
to let it go less than 18. Jim is a cuss.
I suppose your brother wrote you what happened
up at Gil. Harper's recently.
If the cyclones haven't got you by the time this
reaches Aberdeen, write.
Very truly, your friend,
FRANK N. MILLS."
This letter I registered at Lexington and at night, about 11 o'clock,
when I had followed it into the Cincinnati post-office, Herrick and
Salmon were in the money-order division on a step-ladder, peering
through a glass transom into the registry division. As soon as possible
I joined them, and patiently we waited for Quinsey to turn a trick.
It was exactly two A. M. when he commenced on the Chicago bill. He
reached the letter from Lexington at precisely 2:45. It was fat and
tempting. Herrick was on the top of the ladder at that instant, and he
sent a peculiar thrill of surprise through me when he turned and
whispered:
"Hush, hush, he has picked it up."
"Now he's feeling of it."
"He's looking at the back of the of the R. P. E. (the outside envelope)
to see how well it's sealed."
"He's laid it down and placed a book over it; somebody is moving
around."
"It's quiet now and he's looking at the back again."
"Hush, don't move, he's carefully feeling again."
"It's under the blotter now; somebody at the other table got up to get a
drink. There's no one at his table but himself."
"Hush now, he's making a close examination to see how well its sealed."
"Hush now, for God's sake don't move; he's trying to open it with his
knife."
"Hush, hush, hush, he'll have it opened in an instant."
"Its open now, and he's looking at the letter envelope very closely."
"There, d----n it, some fellow has moved again and he's shoved it under
the blotter."
"Hush, hush, don't stir; he's feeling of the letter again."
"Hush, don't breathe, he's trying to raise the flap of the envelope; it
comes up hard; don't move."
"There, there, there, he's got it up."
"Hush, he's got the money out and is reading the letter."
"He's smiling as he reads."
"We must open the door and rush, in now."
"Come, be quick and be quiet; you know he's chain lightning."
"The door's unlocked; now, all together, go!"
An instant later there was a flutter, and all was over. The great
conjurer had at last performed an illusion that was not optical--an act
not mentioned on the bill.
Applause. Curtain. Prison.
BOYS' COPYRIGHTED BOOKS
Printed from large, clear type on a superior quality of paper,
embellished with original illustrations by eminent artists, and bound in
a superior quality of binders' cloth, ornamented with illustrated
covers, stamped in colors from, unique and appropriate dies, each book
wrapped in a glazed paper wrapper printed in colors.
BOY SCOUT SERIES
By
G. HARVEY RALPHSON, of the Black Bear Patrol.
1.--Boy Scouts in Mexico; or, On Guard with Uncle Sam.
2.--Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam.
3.--Boy Scouts in the Philippines; or, The Key to the Treaty Box.
4.--Boy Scouts in the Northwest; or, Fighting Forest Fires.
5.--Boy Scouts in a Motor Boat; or, Adventures on the Columbia River.
6.--Boy Scouts in an Airship; or, The Warning from the Sky.
7.--Boy Scouts in a Submarine; or, Searching an Ocean Floor.
8.--Boy Scouts on Motorcycles; or, With the Flying Squadron.
9.--Boy Scouts Beyond the Artic Circle; or, The Lost Expedition.
10.--Boy Scout Camera Club; or, Confessions of a Photograph.
11.--Boy Scout Electricians; or, The Hidden Dynamo.
12.--Boy Scouts in California; or, The Flag on the Cliff.
13.--Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay; or, The Disappearing Fleet.
14.--Boy Scouts in Death Valley; or, The City in the Sky.
15.--Boy Scouts on the Open Plains; or, The Round-up not Ordered.
16.--Boy Scouts in Southern Waters; or, the Spanish Treasure Chest.
17.--Boy Scouts in Belgium; or, Under Fire in Flanders.
18.--Boy Scouts in the North Sea; or, the Mystery of U-13.
19.--Boy Scout Verdun Attack.
20.--Boy Scouts with the Cossacks; or, Poland Recaptured.
THE MOTORCYCLE CHUMS SERIES
By Andrew Carey Lincoln
1.--Motorcycle Chums in the Land of the Sky; or, Thrilling Adventures on
the Carolina Border.
2.--Motorcycle Chums in New England; or, The Mount Holyoke Adventure.
3.--Motorcycle Chums on the Sante Fe Trail; or, The Key to the Treaty
Box.
4.--Motorcycle Chums in Yellowstone Park; or, Lending a Helping Hand.
5.--Motorcycle Chums in the Adirondacks; or, The Search for the Lost
Pacemaker.
6.--Motorcycle Chums Storm Bound; or, The Strange Adventures of a Road
Chase.
List Price $1.00 Each
Rider Agents WANTED
[Illustration]
Boys and young men everywhere are
making good money taking orders for
"Ranger" bicycles and bicycle tires.
You are privileged to select the particular
style of Ranger bicycle you prefer;
Motorbike model, "Arch-Frame," "Superbe,"
"Scout," "Special," "Racer," etc. While
you ride and enjoy it in your spare time hours
--after school or work, evenings and holidays
--your admiring friends can be easily
induced to place their orders through you.
Factory to Rider Every purchaser of a Ranger bicycle
(on our factory-direct-to-the-rider sales plan)
gets a high-grade fully guaranteed model direct
from the factory at wholesale prices, and is privileged
to ride it for 30 days before final acceptance.
If not satisfied it may be returned at our expense
and no charge is made for the use of machine during
trial.
Delivered to You FREE
We prepay the delivery charges on every Ranger
from our factory
in Chicago
to your town
and pay the
return charges
to Chicago if
you decide not to keep it.
Choice of
44 Styles
Colors
and Sizes in
the Ranger line
Easy Payments if desired, at
a small advance over
our special Factory-to-Rider cash prices.
Parts For All Bicycles
In the Ranger catalog you will find illustrated
bicycle cranks, cups, cones, sprockets
and a complete Universal Repair
Hanger and Repair Front Forks designed
to fit any and every bicycle ever manufactured
in America. Complete instructions
are given so that any boy can intelligently
order the parts wanted. You will also find
repair parts for all the standard makes of
hubs and coaster-brakes and all the latest
equipment and novelties.
Tires at Factory Prices Share with us
our savings in Trainload Tire Contracts and in the Samson,
Record and Hedgethorn Tires get the best Tire values in
America at Wholesale Factory Prices.
Send No Money But write us TODAY for the Big
Ranger Book and particulars of
our 30 Day Free Trial Plan, wholesale prices and terms.
[Illustration]
MEAD CYCLE COMPANY
Dept. D210 CHICAGO, U.S.A.