house, and he had handed Tom several strips of the precious silverlike
metal.

"Do? I should say it would! My, but that is the best platinum I've seen
in a long while!" exclaimed Tom, who was an expert judge of this metal.
"Where did you get it, if I may ask?"

"It came from a lost mine in Siberia," was the unexpected answer.

"A lost mine?" gasped Tom.

"In Siberia?" added Ned.

Mr. Petrofsky slowly nodded his head, and smiled, but rather sadly.

"A lost mine," he said slowly, "and if it could be found I would be the
happiest man on earth for I would then be able to locate and save my
brother, who is one of the Czar's exiles," and he seemed shaken by
emotion.

Tom and Ned stood looking at the bearded man, and then the young
inventor glanced at the platinum strips in his hand while a strange and
daring thought came to him.




CHAPTER II

A DARING PROJECT