set of
papers that would tell a man down in Brazil just how to locate the
diamond field?"

"I can, Halstead. It would be a matter of some hours of writing,
that's all. But why are you asking this? What plan have you in your
mind?"

"Well, I've got a hunch, sir," replied Tom Halstead, quietly, "that
you're never going to see the lost papers again. If Anson Dalton found
you getting close to him, and knew you could seize the papers, he'd
destroy them. It seems to me that our sole game must be to prevent his
ever getting those papers to Brazil ahead of a second set that you can
just as well write to-night."

"If we trail him all the time," replied Powell Seaton, thoughtfully,
"we can know whether the fellow succeeds in getting away on a ship to
Brazil. He can't go on that drab boat ahead, can he?"

"The seventy-footer would be quite good enough a boat to make the
voyage to Brazil," Halstead answered. "So would the 'Restless,' for
that matter. The only trouble would be that neither boat could carry
anywhere near enough gasoline for such a voyage."

"Then Anson Dalton, if he gets away to Brazil, will have to board some
regular liner or freighter? Well, as long as we keep him in sight,
we'll know whether he's doing that."

"But Dalton will get desperate," Tom warned his employer. "While
holding onto the papers he has succeeded in obtaining, he can make a
copy, and he may very likely determine to send the copies to your old
enemy, Terrero, by mail. Now, Mr. Seaton, it seems to me that your
best hope is to duplicate the missing papers at once, and, if you
can't find in haste a messenger you'll trust, then you had better send
the papers by registered mail to your friends in Rio Janeiro."

Powell Seaton stared at the young skipper, going deathly pale.

"Captain Halstead, don't you understand that the possession of such a
set of papers, at Rio Janeiro, would mean that the possessor could
locate and file a patent to the diamond field, of which no one, save
myself, at present knows the exact location? Why, even if the postal
authorities do their very best to put the papers in the proper hands,
anyone like a dishonest clerk might get the papers in his hands. The
temptation would be powerful for anyone who had the papers to locate
the mine at once for himself."

"I understand, fully," agreed Captain Tom. "But the whole thing has
become a desperate case, now, and some desperate chances must be
taken if you're to have a good