High up near the clouds Terry kept her plane at top speed. Now that she was on her way to find Allan and Syd most of her nervousness left her. She was hopeful. She even expected to hear when she made her first stop for gas and oil, that the boys had been reported.

But in this she was disappointed. “Still missing!” said the manager of the field. “Nothing’s been heard of them, and now I guess nothing will. They’ve disappeared. They’ve crashed!”

Terry’s heart sank. She looked at Prim, whose anxious face was turned away to hide her feelings.

“Don’t let us give up, Prim,” said Terry in a low voice. “It isn’t as if they were forced down away out at sea. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they had engine trouble and came down in the woods a hundred miles from a telegraph office.”

“Of course, I know,” replied Prim. “They’re probably safe enough. I do wish they had a radio on their plane. In my heart I feel as if nothing could happen to Allan and Syd.” Prim’s comforting words brought a smile to Terry’s face.

“All right, let’s go!” she said impulsively. “We’ll find them.”

As Terry climbed once more into the air, sending her plane zooming for a high altitude, she thought of her own hopes. How different this trip to Harbor Grace was from the one she had mapped out for herself. Instead of a triumphant, adventurous flight that might bring her fame, she was simply out scouting to find her friends. Always duty stood in her way. She allowed her mind to play with the idea that she and Prim were on their way to Europe, she yearned for the applause of the crowd that would welcome her back to her own country.

Above the rugged wilds of Canada, Terry brought her plane lower and Prim kept her eyes strained toward the ground, hoping to see the stranded Comet. But there was no sign of a plane. Flying low over a vast forest, Terry circled back and forth, fearing to see a tangled mass of wings in the tree tops.

“Let’s go on to Harbor Grace. Perhaps there is word from them now,” cried Prim through the earphones.

Far below them now was the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was hardly likely that the boys had been forced down there. They would certainly have been sighted and picked up by a passing steamer. Yet Prim watched the water for any sight of the wreck.

Straight over the vast waste land of Newfoundland Terry kept her plane headed toward the distant airport. Great stretches of uninhabited country spread out below them, marshes, forests and rocky hills.

“Look Terry! Is that a plane? Down there in that rocky field?”

Terry made a steep dive. She circled and banked over the rugged land. “I see it. It is a plane! Oh Prim, I do believe we’ve found the boys!” From the air they could not be sure whether anyone was near the plane. Terry circled low to find a safe landing place. As she shut off the motor for a landing, the plane bounced and jumped over the uneven ground, threatening to tear the wheels off. But as soon as it stopped the two girls sprang from the cockpits and ran toward the stranded plane, frightened at what they might find.

Prim was ahead and let out a sharp cry.

“Oh, what is it, Prim? What’s the matter?”

Then Terry stood speechless, for the plane beside them was The Crate, her father’s old air craft which Bud Hyslop had borrowed for his trip to Florida. Yet Bud was nowhere to be seen.

What did it mean?

“What’s The Crate doing up here when Bud went south with it?” exclaimed Terry indignantly.

“Perhaps Bud came up to find the boys, the same as we did,” said Prim, but the girl did not believe her own words. Both of them were well aware that Bud hated the boys, they knew that he had done them many a bad turn. And there was no likelihood that he had flown from Florida in the time since the boys were reported missing.

“What’s the answer?” asked Terry.

“Let’s find Bud Hyslop and ask him that question,” replied Prim.

Terry made a quick examination of The Crate. There was plenty of gas and oil. There was no leak in the fuel tank. Terry got into the plane, and Prim turned the propellor. The engine roared. It was working perfectly.

Terry shut it off and remarked with a shrug, “Well, one thing is certain. Bud wasn’t forced down with engine trouble. It’s my opinion that he’s up here on some mischief.”

“Terry,” said Prim quietly, “I don’t think any more of Bud Hyslop than you do. But we oughtn’t to accuse him before we are certain and I don’t believe he’d harm the boys in any way.”

“I’m not so sure, even about that. But what’s he doing up here when he said he was going to Florida?”

“I don’t know, Terry. Don’t let us waste time by standing here thinking mean thoughts about Bud Hyslop. We’ll never find the boys that way.”

“You’re right, Prim. Only I’m mad clear through! Come on!” The girls climbed into the plane. There was a brisk wind blowing and Terry headed into it for a quick take-off. Skybird bumped over the rocky field, then with a flirt of the tail, the little plane cleared the boulders and nosed upward.

Terry and Prim looked around them for landmarks in order to locate the position of The Crate when they wanted it. She judged it was a mile back from the rocky shore line of the island. A great cliff rose like a castle. Stretching out from the summit was a broad plateau. At its base was a collection of fishermen’s huts. Consulting her map, Terry decided that Harbor Grace was twenty miles away. She took a straight course and half an hour later put her plane down on the field in a perfect three-point landing.

Before the girl could step from the cockpit a mechanic came toward her.

“Are you Terry Mapes?” he asked. “There’s a telegram here for you. Please call at the office!”

Terry and Prim ran toward the office of the airport. “They’re safe! I’m sure of it! I could scream with joy!” said Terry.

Tearing open the telegram she read:

“Kidnapped! Now we understand! Bud Hyslop is at the bottom of this business, you can be sure of that,” stormed Terry, as she made her way back to the plane.

“But what does mother mean by ‘trouble here. Come’?” asked Prim. “Do you suppose Dad is sick? Maybe we’d better start home right away, Terry.”

“If Dad were sick, Mother wouldn’t just say, ‘trouble here,’ she’d say very decidedly, ‘Your father ill, come at once!’”

Prim laughed and the nerve tension relaxed. “I guess you’re right, Terry. She wouldn’t beat about the bush where Dad is concerned. Then what does she mean? What can be wrong?”

But neither of the girls foresaw that their father would be suspected of the kidnapping and that their absence from home would be taken as a sign that they were mixed up in the plot.

When Bennett Graham received a ransom note, telling him that his son had been kidnapped and demanding the sum of fifty thousand dollars, the man was almost beside himself with anxiety. Threats were made against the two boys and Graham was making arrangements to have the sum paid over. Then he received a mysterious telephone message which hinted that Dick Mapes and his daughter, Terry, were responsible for the kidnapping. He was told that Dick Mapes was in with a gang of criminals and that they would stop at nothing.

It was well known that Dick was having a hard time financially, that his doctor bills had taken every cent he possessed and that he needed money desperately at this particular time. To Allan’s father this seemed motive enough for the kidnapping.

Bennett Graham snapped the receiver of his telephone into place and without waiting to think things over calmly he raced his car toward the Dick Mapes Flying Field.

Here he found Dick in his wheel chair and before the cripple could speak, Allan’s father burst out with a storm of abuse.

“Where is my son? You kidnapper!”

Dick stared at the man for a full minute before he could realize that Bennett Graham was accusing him.

“I kidnap Allan and Syd? Why, what are you talking about? Have you lost your reason?”

Suddenly Bennett Graham became calm. “Dick Mapes, you may as well own up. Of course I know you couldn’t go out and kidnap the boy yourself. But your gang!”

“My gang! The only gang I have is your son and his friend Syd Ames. They are good boys and I’m proud of them. No one feels worse about this matter than I do.”

“What is your price, Dick Mapes? What do you want? Is this your way of getting even with me for withdrawing my support from your field?”

As Dick did not answer, the man went on, “I’ve been hearing about you from different sources. I’m on to you, and you must know it. Now tell me where the boy is! I’ll pay you. Yes, even the fifty thousand dollars, if you return him safely.”

“I don’t want your money that way, Bennett Graham! And if I knew where Allan was, I’d tell you.”

“Where’s Terry?” demanded Graham. “She knows all about this deal. She thinks that fifty thousand dollars will finance the field here!”

“Stop! Not another word! Terry and Prim went north to try to find your son and Syd Ames. They started before they heard that the boys had been kidnapped.”

“Listen here, Mapes, for the last time I ask you to bring back my boy. I’ve been told that Terry and Syd Ames are both in this scheme to get money out of me. Don’t force me to have you arrested.” The old man rose to his feet walked up and down excitedly then came and stood over Dick’s chair.

“Where is Terry, I ask again?”

“I told you all I know. The girls started out for Harbor Grace. We are expecting word from them any time now.”

Suddenly the man turned to Dick. “If I give you the money will you bring Allan back safely? Can you be sure that your gang will not kill him?”

Dick’s eyes flashed with anger.

“Listen to me, Bennett Graham,” he finally said. “If I could get up from this chair you would never dare to talk to me like this. I say again, I do not know where your son is. Tell me exactly what you have heard about me. Who has been talking? I must know.”

But Bennett Graham was too agitated to be reasonable. His eyes flashed angrily. Rising he strode without another word to his car. His lips were set in firm determination. If Dick Mapes would not talk, then the law must take its course.

“He’s hard hit, poor man,” said Alice Mapes, coming on to the veranda in time to see Bennett Graham leave. “But you’d think by the way he glared at us that he thinks we kidnapped the boys.”

“That’s just what he thinks, Alice,” said Dick. “He accused me to my face of kidnapping Allan for ransom money. Fifty thousand dollars!”

Alice Mapes stood for a moment, as if in a trance. She could hardly believe Dick’s statement. Then she burst into an hysterical laugh.

“Of all the ridiculous things I’ve ever heard, this is the limit! You a kidnapper! That’s a joke!”

“I’m afraid it’s not a joke, Alice,” replied Dick. “Bennett Graham seems determined to ruin me. Ever since my accident he is like a stranger. One would think that he was my worst enemy.”

“Then let’s not have anything more to do with the man,” Alice exclaimed angrily.

“That’s easier said than done, my dear. He has threatened to have me arrested.”

“Let him try and see what will happen!” stormed the woman. And an hour later she had sent the telegram to Terry demanding that she return.

And Terry and Prim, reading it through in Harbor Grace and knowing what they did about Bud Hyslop, decided that they must stay on. Bud was a treacherous enemy. They might have trouble, but when the lives of Allan Graham and Syd Ames were at stake, they had no choice. They had to see it through.

Terry’s answer to her mother’s telegram was flippantly worded in an effort to cheer her up.

Little did the girl realize that the foolish message was to be taken as an acknowledgment of guilt and would bring still further suspicion and suffering upon her father.