or as they stepped into the cabin.

"Who's got a searchlight handy?" asked Will.

Tommy replied that he would have a light on in a second, but before the
finger of light from the electric shot into the room, Will half fell
over a yielding figure which lay on the floor not for away from the
table.

Then the circle of light, thrown hastily down, rested upon the white,
drawn face of a boy not far from sixteen years of age. There was a
little showing of blood on the floor, and his eyes were tightly closed,
indicating that he had been rendered unconscious by a wound.

The lad was dressed in the khaki uniform of the Boy Scouts of America,
and the badge on his hat showed that he was Leader of the Fox Patrol.

A long envelope torn open at one end and bearing the name of Will Smith,
lay empty by the lad's side.

"Where did he come from?" cried Tommy, "and who is he?"

"Must have dropped out of the sky!" declared Sandy.

CHAPTER II

THE PRINT OF A THUMB

"The Fox Patrol!" exclaimed George. "I wonder if that means the Fox
Patrol of Chicago? It doesn't seem to me that this kid could have
followed on our heels across the continent!"

Will lifted the torn envelope from the floor and examined it critically.

"That's your name isn't it?" asked Sandy looking over his shoulder.

"It certainly is!" replied Will.

"Well, you've got the address left, anyhow!" said George.

"Say," Tommy suggested, opening his eyes very wide, "some gink followed
the boy here, bumped him on the coco, and stole the communication! I
reckon we're getting into the center of population again. Here we are,
several hundred miles from nowhere, and we've unearthed an innocent
messenger and a bold highwayman already!"

"Have you any idea what the stolen paper contained?" asked George.

"Not the slightest!" replied Will.

"Wasn't it arranged that Mr. Horton should communicate with you after we
reached this point?" asked Sandy.

"Certainly not!" was the reply. "He gave me full instructions before we
left Chicago. If I found a deserted cabin at this point, I was to make
camp here. If I did not, I was to keep along the coast toward Bering
Glacier until I discovered one answering this description."

"But where did this kid come from?" insisted Tommy. "How did he ever get
here all by his lonely? We had two guides to help us in, and it seems
that he came alone, that is, as far as we can see."

"I don't think he came alone!" replied Sandy pointi