Sandy looked at Jerry helplessly. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for them.”
The clerk gave them a passkey to one of the two adjoining rooms occupied by Dr. Steele and his party. When they entered the room, the boys were surprised to see that the geologists hadn’t even started to pack. Clothing, books and toilet articles were scattered everywhere.
Jerry looked at his wrist watch. “We’re never going to take off for Juneau at one o’clock at this rate. It’s after eleven now. Are you sure you didn’t get the days mixed up, Sandy? Maybe your father wasn’t expecting us until tomorrow.”
A little seed of fear began to grow inside of Sandy. “No, he said the third. Professor Crowell told Russ he wanted to fly to Juneau today, too. I can’t understand it, Jerry. If Dad didn’t expect to be here when we got back from Kodiak, he would have left word for us. Anyway, they couldn’t have been planning to make any overnight trips. They didn’t take razors, toothbrushes or anything; my dad shaves every morning even when he’s on a fishing trip miles from civilization. I don’t like it, Jerry.”
Jerry’s face turned pale under its perpetual tan. “Sandy, you don’t think those enemy agents...?” He left the sentence unfinished.
Before Sandy could reply, the telephone on the stand between the twin beds jangled harshly. The boys looked at each other hopefully.
“Maybe that’s Dad calling.” Sandy threw himself across one of the beds and picked up the receiver eagerly. But it was Russ Parker phoning from the airfield.
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” Parker said, “but I just found out that your dad and his friends chartered a plane yesterday morning to fly out to McCarthy. That’s an old ghost town near the abandoned Kennecott copper mine. When they didn’t show back last night, the authorities figured they had been forced down somewhere with engine trouble. Search planes have been combing the area all morning, but there’s no sign of the plane, crashed or otherwise.”
“What do you think we should do, Russ?” Sandy asked in a tight voice.
“I dunno. I sort of thought we might fly out that way ourselves and have a look.”