to
Brill.

"Sam, this is simply terrible," observed the big brother, as he paced
the depot platform, the station master having gone away. "I never
thought such a thing as this would come to Tom."

"Neither did I, Dick. Nellie is all broke up over it, too."

"Naturally."

"Did you send word home? I didn't."

"No, I didn't want to worry the folks until the last minute. But Dora
knows, and so does Mrs. Stanhope."

"What about Dad's business, Dick? Can you get away from it?"

"I can't get away any too easily, Sam. Things are in a fearful snarl.
But I telephoned to Mr. Powell, the lawyer, to look after matters
during my absence. I think we've got those brokers under our thumb--at
least I hope so. But if we haven't, we stand to lose a bunch of money."

"How much?"

"Twenty or thirty thousand dollars."

"That's too bad. If you think you ought to go back, I might look for
Tom alone."

"Don't you dare to mention such a thing, Sam. I think more of Tom than
I do of twice that amount of money--and so do you and the rest of the
family. Our whole duty is to find Tom, and do it, too, before he gets
into more mischief, or gets hurt," concluded the oldest Rover.

Promptly on time the night express bound west came along. It seldom
stopped at Brill and the conductor gazed curiously at the two youths as
they got aboard. Then the lantern was extinguished and set aside, and
the heavy train rolled on.

Fortunately travel was light that night, so the lads had no trouble in
getting a section of a sleeper from the Pullman porter. They had only
the lower berth made up, and on that laid down, to talk matters over
and get some sleep.

"Yes, it must have been that moving picture that set Tom off," said
Dick, during the course of the conversation. "And that gives us
something like a clue to work on. The main scenes took place in
Alaska, and he may be just topsy-turvy enough in his mind to want to
find those places. Talking about golden nuggets, and about being on
the trail of Bill Stiger, looks like it, anyway."

"I think so myself, Dick. But his mind may change and he may go to
Mexico, or Europe," and Sam sighed deeply.

Neither of the boys slept much and both were up almost as early as
anybody on the train. More to pass the time than because they felt
hungry, they went into the dining car for breakfast.

At last the train rolled into the suburbs of the great city of the
lakes and finally came to a stop at