than a motion picture machine can take in a hundred years."

"The stolen boy is in no ways related to any one in this country,"
Ned answered, "yet his safety is of the utmost importance. It is up
to us to find him."

"But why should the mountain men make a grab at a kid?" insisted
Jimmie. "I've asked that question numerous times now," he added, with
a wrinkled nose.

"It is not believed that the mountain men know anything about the
matter," Ned replied. "No one suspects them of taking the child.
Mountain men are not up to that sort of thing, as a rule. They will
make moonshine--some of them will--and may hide a counterfeiter, but
they don't steal children!"

"Then who did steal him?" asked Frank. "Don't be so mysterious."

"I want the matter to sink deep into your alleged minds!" was Ned's
smiling rejoinder, "and that is the reason I'm drawing the
explanation out. It is thought the boy was stolen by some one who
came over the sea to do the job--some one never before in this
country."

"I twig!" Jimmie declared, skipping about the room. "The stolen boy
is next of succession to some measly old throne! What? And he was
sent out here to get him out of the zone of danger, and now he's been
nipped?"

The boys looked at Ned with redoubled interest. It had been