ER XIII.

BOY SCOUTS TO THE RESCUE.

Ned Nestor and Frank Shaw sat on the porch, that night, for a long time
after the other boys were asleep. It had been decided that Frank should
stand guard until midnight, but Ned was far too anxious to attempt to
sleep. The absence of Jimmie and Peter worried him, and he sat waiting for
some sign of their approach until very late.

"Frank," he said, after a long silence, "there has been some talk in this
case about your father having an interest in an emerald mine down here.
Have you any idea where that mine is?"

"Not the slightest," was the reply. "All I know about it is that it is a
paying proposition, and that foreigners are in the game with him."

"You do not even know whether the mine is situated in the Province of
Panama?"

"I rather think it is."

"I have heard talk," Ned went on, "about mines on the line of the canal.
It may be that this one is."

"I think it is not far from Colon," was the reply.

"Do you know who these foreigners are?"

"Japanese, I think."

Ned was silent for a time, as if studying some proposition over in his
mind. The boys in the cottage were stirring in their sleep, and a
shrill-voiced bird in the jungle was calling to its mate.

"What are you trying to get at?" Frank asked.

"Has it ever occurred to you," Ned replied, "that your father acted rather
strangely on the night he was attacked in his house--the night your
emerald necklace was stolen and the office building searched?"

"I have never thought of his attitude as remarkable," replied Frank, "but,
come to think the matter over from this distance, it does seem that he did
act queerly when asked to reveal the nature of the information he had
received. Lieutenant Gordon was angry with him."

"Yes; the lieutenant believed that the papers would help him a lot if he
could get hold of them. He still thinks so."

"I understand that he still, in his mind, accuses father of disloyalty to
his country," said Frank.

"It seems to me," Ned continued, "that one of two propositions is true.
Either the papers would be useless in revealing the plot, or they deal
with a situation which your father believes himself capable of handling
alone."

"I wonder what he will think when he gets the cable Lieutenant Gordon took
up to Panama for me?" asked Frank.

"What did you say in the message?"

"I told him to keep an army of men in the basement of the newspaper
building--to look out for bombs al