letter, and this Joe took with him, also his own to his father.
"Maybe I'll get a chance to deliver it to him myself," he said, with a smile that had little of hope in it.
There was nothing more to be learned at the lighthouse. The boys left, after thanking the keeper, and promising to come and see him again. As they went out Mr. Stanton gave Blake a little sign, warning him not to disclose the secret.
"Well, failure number one," said Joe, as they took a carriage back to San Diego, it being rather late.
"Yes, but we'll win out yet!" declared Blake, with a confidence he did not feel. "We'll find your father and your sister, too."
"I'll have more relations than you, Blake, if I keep on, and can find them," said Joe, after a bit.
"That's right. Well, I wish you luck," and Blake wondered if Joe would be glad he had found his father, after all. "Wrecking is a black business," mused the lad. "But, like Mr. Stanton, I'm not going to think Joe's father guilty until I have to. I wonder, though, if the story is known about San Diego? If it is I'll have trouble keeping it from Joe."
But Joe's chum found he had little to fear on this score, for, on getting back to the quarters of
