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196 Dick tossed the lad some coins, and, picking them up, he ran back up the pier as if some one was after him.

"Quick, Beeby!" called Paul, "if you want a snapshot, now's your chance."

"Now he's in too much of a hurry," objected the cadet, as he snapped his camera at the fleeing lad. "Wonderful to relate, he's entirely too quick for me."

Senor Alantrez was reading his letter. As he finished it he uttered a cry, and extended the missive to Dick.

"It is news of my boy!" he exclaimed joyously. "The scoundrels have given him up. Oh, the saints be praised! Now, we can get him—if only he is unharmed. See—read, Senor Hamilton!"

The note was brief, and was written in English, which Senor Alantrez was familiar with. Dick perused it:

"Senor Alantrez," the letter began. "We regret having been the cause of annoying you, but it was not altogether our fault. We made a mistake. We did not mean to kidnap your son. We wish to restore him to you unharmed, but we do not care, for obvious reasons, to venture back to Santiago. Therefore, we have taken this plan: We will leave your son on a small island, called Stone Island, where you can call for him at your leisure. He will be provided with sufficient food and water to last two weeks, and, in addition, there is food to be had on the place. He will not