of his head where a pin-prick would have killed him. A case of pure
Providence, I'd call it."

"Let's get out of here," said Barney, showing signs of weakness. "I've
had quite enough of it."

With an arm on either of his comrades' shoulders, he made his way back to
the station, where a bowl of hot reindeer broth completely revived him.

"The next thing," said Bruce, "is to hunt out that infernal contraption
which threatens our lives."

It was a delicate and dangerous undertaking, but little by little, they
traced out the wires and disconnected them. At last they found it in a
small box which had been skillfully fitted into a beam.

"Innocent looking little thing," said Bruce, holding it up for
inspection. "To-morrow I am going to take it out to the lake, hook it up
with a couple of batteries and see if it's got any kick."

After a hearty meal, the three resumed their previous evening's
occupation, attempting to decipher the strangely coded message.

"Here's a theory to try out," said Bruce. "A message is usually composed
of nearly an equal number of words of one to three letters and of those
having more than three. These are likely to be used alternately. If then,
you find two or three words of four or more letters, it's likely to be a
name. The man, whoever he is, has signed only a code name, but there may
be more names in the body of the message. Look it over."