Ted and Nelson stay at Bob Fontaine's ranch. As the boys arrive, a plane crashes, and one occupant vanishes. Meanwhile, a mystery surrounds an old hermit, and footprints indicate that someone has been watching the ranch.

Strange doings on an ore boat! Ted and Nelson to go undercover as unskilled deck hands on the S.S. Shamrock unravel the truth. Is it just bad luck, or is something more nefarious afoot? Stir in a stowaway, a realistic shipping setting, and a series of puzzling events and you get a classic entry in the Ted Wilford series.

"When Old Goldie, a prospector rumored to have had a hidden gold mine, passes away, he leaves an envelope addressed to ""T. A. F."" It contains only a photograph of a small cabin. Who was Old Goldie, and who is T.A.F.? Is there really a mine? Ted Wilford and his friend Nelson Morgan set out to answer these questions. If the mine exists at all, they soon realize, it must be on Thunder Mountain. From that point the race is on. A mining engineer, a secret code, a Native American, a rival reporter -- and most of the people from the two nearest towns -- are also looking for the mine. Whoever finds and claims it first may win a fortune. And some of them will stop at nothing to get it..."

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

A world list of books in the English language.

Includes entries for maps and atlases.