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Title: The Motor Boys After a Fortune; or, The Hut on Snake Island

Author: Clarence Young

Release date: November 22, 2014 [eBook #47417]
                Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed
        Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE; OR, THE HUT ON SNAKE ISLAND ***

[Illustration: JERRY SENT THE CHASER DIRECTLY AT THE COMET.]




                            THE MOTOR BOYS
                            AFTER A FORTUNE

                                  Or

                        The Hut on Snake Island

                                  BY
                            CLARENCE YOUNG

                               Author of
         “The Racer Boys Series” and “The Jack Ranger Series.”


                              ILLUSTRATED


                               NEW YORK
                        CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY




BOOKS BY CLARENCE YOUNG


=THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES=

12mo. Illustrated.

Price per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.

  THE MOTOR BOYS
  THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND
  THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO
  THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS
  THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC
  THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC
  THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS
  THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE ROCKIES
  THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE OCEAN
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE WING
  THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE


=THE JACK RANGER SERIES=

12mo. Finely Illustrated.

Price per volume, $1.00, postpaid.

  JACK RANGER’S SCHOOLDAYS
  JACK RANGER’S WESTERN TRIP
  JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL VICTORIES
  JACK RANGER’S OCEAN CRUISE
  JACK RANGER’S GUN CLUB
  JACK RANGER’S TREASURE BOX


  Copyright, 1912, by
  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY


THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                                     PAGE
      I. TO THE RESCUE                          1
     II. THE SAVING OF NODDY                   11
    III. NODDY BEGINS PLOTTING                 22
     IV. PLANNING A FORTUNE HUNT               33
      V. NODDY’S PLOT DEVELOPS                 40
     VI. OFF FOR PITTSBURG                     51
    VII. IN DANGER                             58
   VIII. DOWN THE ALLEGHANY                    69
     IX. OFF IN THE AUTO                       77
      X. HELD UP                               85
     XI. NODDY IN ADVANCE                      92
    XII. DISAPPOINTMENT                       104
   XIII. THE PROFESSOR’S LUNCH                115
    XIV. THE WRECK OF THE LIMITED             121
     XV. THE EXPRESS AHEAD                    129
    XVI. THE AIRSHIP GONE                     138
   XVII. AN UNEXPECTED OFFER                  144
  XVIII. ON THE TRAIL                         152
    XIX. A DESPERATE RACE                     159
     XX. A GAME IN THE AIR                    168
    XXI. OFF FOR THE CANYON                   174
   XXII. OVER THE GREAT CHASM                 182
  XXIII. THE BOAT IN THE RAPIDS               189
   XXIV. STRANGE GHOSTS                       196
    XXV. A NEST OF SERPENTS                   205
   XXVI. LIVE WIRES                           212
  XXVII. THE TRANSPORTING OF NODDY            217
 XXVIII. THE RISING FLOOD                     224
   XXIX. IN THE CAVE                          230
    XXX. THE RADIUM TREASURE--CONCLUSION      238




PREFACE


DEAR BOYS:--

I wonder if any of you are superstitious, or if you believe in “signs”?
I, myself, do not, but as this happens to be the thirteenth book in the
Motor Boys series, I just thought I’d mention it, more as a joke than
anything else.

You know some persons think thirteen is unlucky. I do not, and I am
sure you do not, either. So I venture to hope that I have been lucky
enough to write for you, in this thirteenth volume, a book you will
like better than any of the preceding ones that I have been happy to
pen.

Certainly, Jerry, Ned and Bob, when they went after the radium treasure,
on Snake Island, in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, had a chance to
believe in “signs” if they were so inclined. But when they saw the
strange “ghosts” they were not a bit frightened, and, later on, they
discovered the cause of them.

This story, though a complete tale in itself, is linked with the others
in the series. It tells how the Motor Boys, hearing through Professor
Snodgrass, of a place where radium was supposed to be located, set off
to find it. They had many adventures, and were in not a little danger.
Then, too, they had to proceed against Noddy Nixon, who had unlawfully
taken their motorship.

I venture to hope that you will like this story, and that you will
care for more about the boys, whom I have come to regard as very good
friends of mine. I should dislike, very much indeed, saying good-bye to
them.

So, wishing you all the pleasure possible in the reading of this story,
I remain,

Yours cordially,

CLARENCE YOUNG.




THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE




CHAPTER I

TO THE RESCUE


“But, Professor, do you really think it’s true?” asked Ned Slade,
looking at the elderly gentleman, whose bald head glistened in the
sunlight, as he sat leafing the pages of a scientific book.

“Is what true, Ned?” inquired Jerry Hopkins, who had crossed the room
to look out of a window.

“What Professor Snodgrass was telling just now, about a fortune in
radium being on a lonely little island in the Colorado River, somewhere
in the Grand Canyon.”

“Radium!” gasped Bob Baker, turning slowly in a big chair.

“Yes, radium,” answered Ned, at whose house the other motor boy chums
had called to meet their old friend, the professor, who was paying a
short visit to Mr. Slade. “Radium, Bob. Do you get the idea, or are you
still trying to figure out how long it will be until lunch time?”

“Aw, quit it,” begged the fat lad. “I guess I can think of something
besides grub, once in a while. But I wasn’t listening very closely.
What is it about radium? That’s the stuff they use to set diamonds in,
instead of gold; isn’t it?”

“Say, what’s the matter with you, Bob?” cried Jerry, a tall, and
well-built lad, as he wheeled around from the window. “Set diamonds in
radium? You’re thinking of platinum, I guess.”

“Oh, that’s right!” admitted Bob.

“Radium!” broke in Ned. “I guess they’d be more likely to set radium in
a diamond, if they could; eh, Professor?”

“Well,” admitted the little scientist with a smile, “it’s valuable
enough to be set in diamonds, but I’m afraid it would be too dangerous
to carry around that way. It can’t be exposed carelessly, you know.”

“Dangerous?” asked Bob. “How’s that?”

“Radium, that wonderful metal, as it is sometimes called, and about
which so much has been written, yet about which even the greatest
scientists admit that they know very little, can cause very severe
burns if brought near a person, and not protected in some way.

“The rays, or emanations from it, pass through almost all substances,
you know, and not only does it cause burns, but also forms of mental
diseases. It is a dangerous, as well as very valuable, metal.”

“But what’s this Ned said about some being on an island in the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado?” persisted Bob. “That sounds interesting. Maybe
there’s a chance for us to take a trip, and get some. Let’s hear more
about it, Professor, please.”

“Well, I don’t know that I can say much,” came from the scientist. “I
just happened to see a mention of radium in this book I was looking at,
and I just told Ned that there was said to be a valuable deposit of it
on this island--Snake Island, I believe it is called--though I don’t
know why. Probably from some Indian name.”

“And I asked him if he believed it was true,” added Ned.

“As to that I can’t say,” resumed Uriah Snodgrass. “All I know is that
some years ago a scientific expedition from Hartwell College set out
to learn if the rumor about the radium was true. They had the story,
I understand, from some prospectors who were searching for gold. The
prospectors landed on this island, because their boat was wrecked, and
one of them picked up a piece of stone, whether it was hornblende or
pitchblende I can’t recall, but you know radium is often found in those
substances.

“At any rate, one of the prospectors kept this piece of mineral,
and when he and his friends left the island he took it with him, not
knowing what it was. Later he gave it to a scientist, as a curiosity,
and the latter at once recognized what it was, and learned where it
came from.

“It was sent to Hartwell College, with which the scientist was
connected, and aroused a great deal of interest. An expedition was at
once fitted up, and about a year ago started for Snake Island.”

“Did they get there?” asked Bob eagerly. “And did they get any gold?”

“They did not, I regret to say,” replied the professor rather solemnly.
“As for gold, they would scarcely have picked it up, had there been
any, if there was radium to be had, for there is no comparison in the
values of the two. With radium at ten thousand dollars, or so, an
ounce, you can easily figure what a little bit would be worth.

“At any rate, the expedition never even got to Snake Island. They
started down the Colorado in a boat, but it was wrecked, and the party
barely escaped alive. This so discouraged them that they returned, and
as far as I know, no one since has set foot on the place where the
radium is supposed to be. Yes, it was a sad piece of business.”

“Why sad?” asked Jerry Hopkins. “Because science missed the chance to
get the radium?”

“Well, yes, in a way, but one of the searching party was lost.”

“Drowned?” asked Ned.

“As to that no one ever knew. He fell into the water when the boat
was wrecked, and none of his friends ever saw him again. They had a
watch kept on the river below, but the body was never seen. The man
disappeared completely. He was quite a friend of mine, too, in a way,
for we corresponded, and exchanged scientific books, though I only saw
him a few times. Hartley Bentwell was his name, and he was one of the
best authorities on radium that I ever heard of. I often wonder what
became of him. He gave his life up in the interests of science.”

“And do you really believe there is radium there?” asked Ned, after a
pause.

“Yes, I think I do,” answered the professor quietly. “I had the
good fortune to see the piece of mineral, containing some, that
the prospector picked up years ago. There was no doubt but that it
contained radium, for all the manifestations were present. And if there
was one bit of radium on that island, there must be more.”

“Unless it’s all evaporated by this time,” put in Bob.

“Radium doesn’t evaporate,” said the professor with a smile. “The
smallest piece you can imagine, will give off what you might call
‘rays’ or ‘sparks’ for thousands of years, and, at the end of that
time, the most delicate scales would show no loss of weight. It’s the
same way with pure musk. A grain of it has been known to scent, say
a box, or chest of drawers, for fifty years, and, at the end of that
time, the whole grain of musk was still there.”

“That’s strange,” murmured Jerry.

“Oh, that’s not nearly all the strange facts about radium,” went on Mr.
Snodgrass. “I could talk to you for hours about it and not half finish.”

“Tell us more about Snake Island,” suggested Ned.

“That’s all I know,” and the professor closed the book that had started
the conversation. “I only heard what I have told you. It was because
I was interested in Mr. Bentwell, and felt his loss so much that the
tale impressed me. I often thought I would like to have a try for
that radium myself, not because of the fortune, but because of the
scientific value of the metal, or mineral, whichever you choose to call
it. But I never seemed to get the time, and I had so many other things
to do, gathering----”

The professor suddenly stopped talking, and made a dive for a certain
spot on the carpet. He came down on his hands and knees, holding his
palms together.

“I got it!” he cried triumphantly. “Ned, please get my smallest insect
case. It’s in my right hand coat pocket,” and the scientist remained on
his knees, a look of joy on his face.

“Did you fall?” asked Bob innocently.

“No, indeed, I jumped,” replied the professor. “As I was speaking I
happened to see a new variety of pink-winged moth fluttering on the
carpet, and as this moth----”

“Moths in my carpet!” cried Mrs. Slade, entering the room at that
moment. “Oh, Professor! Let me kill it at once! Where is it?”

“I have it safe,” answered Mr. Snodgrass with a smile. “As for killing
it, I’ll do that, but it must be carefully done, so as not to crush it.
Have you the box, Ned?”

“Yes, here it is,” and the lad drew out a small, glass-topped case from
the professor’s pocket.

“Well, as long as you have the moth, I suppose it can’t eat holes in my
new carpet,” said Mrs. Slade. “I must put some cedar oil around, and
kill the horrid things.”

“Oh, I beg of you, if you see any more to save them for me!” implored
the professor. “There you are, my little pink beauty!” he exclaimed, as
he put the moth in the case where it soon died, for the box contained
cyanide of potassium, the fumes from which are almost instantly fatal
to insect life. “That is worth many dollars to my college collection,”
went on the scientist. “I would not have missed that for the world.
This has been a lucky day for me. Let me see, what was I talking
about?” and he looked at the boys through his powerful spectacles,
while he absent-mindedly brushed the dust from his trousers.

“It was radium, and you said you’d like to go to Snake Island,”
suggested Ned.

“Oh, yes, and I had told you about how my friend lost his life seeking
the place. Indeed I would like to go, but I am afraid it is out of the
question. However, I suppose some one will get the fortune some day,”
and the professor carefully put the insect box in his pocket, looking
the while, carefully over the carpet for more specimens.

“Well, that surely was a queer yarn,” remarked Bob. “I say, Ned, what
do you say if we have something to eat on it. I’m hungry, and----”

“You don’t care who knows it!” finished Jerry with a laugh.

“That’s all right,” put in Ned good-naturedly, for the chums were
almost like brothers, and made themselves perfectly at home in each
other’s houses. “I guess it must be almost lunch time. I’ll go see if
it isn’t ready. I reckon we can all eat some, even Professor Snodgrass,
if he can spare the time from his specimens.”

“Oh, yes,” laughed the scientist. “I am ready----”

At that moment there came an interruption in the shape of a small boy,
very excited, and out of breath, who dashed up on the porch, on which
opened the library windows of the room where the three chums and the
professor had been talking.

“Whoop!” yelled the small lad.

“Andy Rush!” cried Ned.

“Wow!” yelled Andy, getting his second wind. “Come on,
fellows--’sawful--dam’s busted--river’s got loose--houses being washed
away--people in the water--dogs--chickens--boats--fearful--terrible
excitement--come on--don’t lose a minute--the whole place may go--big
flood--whoop--come on--don’t wait--wow!”

For a moment the three chums gazed at the excited small lad. Then Jerry
asked, sternly:

“Andy, is this true, or are you joking?”

“True? Of course it’s true! Come on--rescue--big damage--dam’s
busted--save lives!”

“Fellows, I guess we’d better go!” cried Jerry, and, followed by his
chums, and the professor, he rushed from the room, Andy coming after,
and giving vent to excited whoops at every other breath.




CHAPTER II

THE SAVING OF NODDY


“How did it happen, Andy?” asked Jerry, as he ran along.

“Yes, tell us more about it,” urged Bob.

“Is it the big reservoir dam that’s broken?” asked Ned. “If it
is, there’ll be a lot of damage, and yet I don’t hear any great
excitement,” and he paused a moment to listen if he could catch the
roar of rushing waters. But there came no unusual sound from the
direction of the river which bordered the town of Cresville, where the
boys lived.

“I don’t know--didn’t see it!” panted Andy. “Old Pete Bumps told
me--said it was the dam--terrible--everything washed away--come
on--wow!”

“Oh, if it was old Pete Bumps, our hired man, who told you, it can’t
be so bad,” returned Bob Baker. “Pete always makes a big fuss over
everything. Let’s take it easy, fellows.”

“You can’t tell,” interposed Jerry. “Something must have happened. I
see a lot of fellows running toward the river,” and he nodded toward
a side street, through which could be had a glimpse of a thoroughfare
parallel to the one on which our friends were, both extending to the
stream. “Come on,” finished the tall lad. “We’ll see what it is,” and
he increased his pace, his companions doing likewise.

While I have just a few moments before the boys reach the river, and in
which time they are doing nothing but running, and wondering what has
happened, I will take the opportunity to tell you something about the
chums, and the various books, previous to this one, in which they have
figured.

The first volume of the series entitled, “The Motor Boys,” told how
the chums got together, and entered a bicycle race. Later on they got
motor-cycles, and then an automobile in which they had many adventures.
They took a long trip overland, got possession of a gold mine, and
later went to Mexico, where they were in great danger. But they managed
to escape, and, on a long trip across the plains they rescued the
hermit of Lost Lake.

After these adventures, our heroes decided that motor boating would
suit them, and they succeeded in getting a fine craft. In the volume
named, “The Motor Boys Afloat,” is told how the lads cruised in the
_Dartaway_, and succeeded in finding the robbers who had broken into
Mr. Slade’s department store.

The lads liked motor boating so well that they took a cruise on the
Atlantic, during which they solved the mystery of the lighthouse, and,
later on, they went to the strange waters of the Florida Everglades.

Naturally, after their adventures on the Atlantic, they turned their
attention to the other ocean, the Pacific, and there they succeeded in
locating a lost derelict.

By this time the science of navigating the air was becoming better
known, and aeroplanes and dirigible balloons were being perfected.
It could not be expected that such lads as the motor boys could be
kept from this field of activity, and with the assistance of an old
balloonist of experience, Rupert Glassford, Bob, Ned and Jerry built a
motorship. In the book called “The Motor Boys in the Clouds,” I told
how they made a great trip for fame and fortune, and, some time later
they went over the Rocky Mountains, and solved the mystery of the air.

Thrilling indeed were the adventures that happened next, for when
they made their voyage over the ocean they succeeded in rescuing
from mid-air a certain Mr. Jackson, who was trying out a new kind of
balloon. He and his crew were rendered unconscious by escaping gas,
but they were brought around all right after hard work.

In the next book, “The Motor Boys on the Wing,” I told how the three
chums sought and found the bank robbers, and recovered the stolen
money. They had been home from this trip some little time, when the
incident narrated in the first chapter of the present volume took place.

I might add that the three chums lived in the town of Cresville, not
far from Boston. Their names you are already familiar with. Bob Baker,
the fat lad, was the son of Mr. Andrew Baker, a well-known banker. Ned
Slade’s father was Aaron Slade, a wealthy department store owner, while
Jerry Hopkins was the son of a rich widow, Mrs. Julia Hopkins. The
three lads were about the same age, full of fun, grit and the love of
adventure.

Many times, though, their fun was spoiled by a mean, bullying lad of
the town, Noddy Nixon by name, and his crony, Bill Berry. But the motor
boys generally managed to get the best of Noddy in the end. In this
they were sometimes aided by Andy Rush, the excitable little chap, who
had given the alarm about the bursting dam. Andy was always excited,
and sometimes by the slightest cause.

Professor Uriah Snodgrass was a well-known scientist. He often went
with the boys on their trips, and he was continually on the lookout for
rare bugs, or other specimens. He was employed by a well-known college,
to get various articles for its museum, and often the professor would
do odd things for the sake of getting a choice insect or reptile.
He was a great friend of the boys, and often visited them at their
houses. He had spent some time with Mr. Slade, who was one of the
trustees of the college to which the professor was attached, and Mr.
Snodgrass was about to return to his duties when, in a talk with Ned,
the conversation turned to radium, as I have mentioned. But now all
thoughts of that, and of Snake Island, were forgotten in the alarm
raised by Andy.

“What do you think can have happened, anyhow?” asked Ned, as he raced
along beside Jerry.

“I give it up; but it’s something, anyhow,” was the tall lad’s answer,
“and that, in spite of the fact that you’ve usually got to discount
what Andy says. Look at the crowd!”

As Jerry spoke he and the others reached the end of the street, and
came in sight of the river. They could see that something out of the
ordinary was taking place, but the stream did not seem to be unusually
high, though it had risen somewhat on account of heavy spring rains.

“The big dam hasn’t burst, or we’d hear the roar of waters,” declared
Ned.

“Yes, and we’d see ’em, too,” added Bob.

“Well, something busted, because Pete Bumps told me!” insisted Andy.
“Maybe the bottom dropped out of the river--water may be all running
away--ground sunk in--we’ll all fall through--whoop!”

“Andy!” cried Jerry. “Stop, or you’ll burst! Cool down; can’t you?”

“I can’t seem to,” answered the small lad. “Hey!” he cried, “there goes
one house, anyhow,” and he pointed to a structure floating down the
stream.

“That’s so!” agreed Bob. “It’s a boathouse, too. I wonder what’s up?”

They saw a moment later. Just above where the street on which they were
running came out on the river front, was a small stream that joined the
main one. This little stream had been dammed up, to provide a flow of
water for an old-fashioned iron mill that used a turbine wheel. Part of
this mill-dam had given way because of the heavy rains, and the waters
that were held back had suddenly been released, to flow into the river
proper.

There was quite a crowd collected on the both banks of the river, and
employees from the mill were endeavoring to repair the break in the
dam, by putting timbers in it, and filling in the gap with stones, sod
and earth.

“Say, this isn’t such an awful flood!” cried Jerry as he took in the
scene. “I thought you said the whole town was being washed away, Andy?”

“And you said houses were being carried down,” added Ned.

“Well, there’s one house washed away, anyhow,” declared the small,
excitable chap, as if to justify himself.

“That’s so!” cried Bob, “and it’s Noddy Nixon’s boathouse. It’s been
washed away, and it’s going right down the river.”

“It didn’t take much to wash it away,” said Jerry. “It was built too
far out in the water, anyhow, and the piles it stood on weren’t much
bigger than clothes poles. I always thought it would wash away if the
water got high, and now it has.”

Noddy Nixon had recently built a new boathouse on a piece of land near
the river. It was just below the mill dam, and, naturally, when the
rush of waters came, the structure was carried away, for it was not
securely built. It was now floating down the stream, careening from
side to side in the rushing waters.

“Somebody ought to save that boathouse!” cried Andy.

“Let Noddy do it then,” answered Jerry. “It isn’t worth an awful lot,
and it will be worth less when this flood gets through with it.”

“Look!” suddenly exclaimed Ned. “Some one is in the boathouse!”

He pointed toward it, and, at the same time a cry arose from the crowds
on either bank.

“Some one’s in the house!” was the shout. “He’ll be drowned!”

“It’s a man!” yelled Andy.

“It’s Noddy himself!” cried Bob.

The figure on the narrow platform in front of the floating boathouse
could now be plainly seen. It was that of Noddy, as Bob had said, and
the bully who had been endeavoring, by means of a long pole, to push
his house toward shore, now threw up his hands, and cried for help.

“It’s time he did that before,” commented Ned. “The current’s got him
now, and he’ll never get that house to land.”

“Where was he all this while?” asked Bob. “I didn’t notice him at
first.”

“Guess he must have been on the other side, out of sight,” spoke Jerry.

Noddy was now frantically rushing up and down, calling at the top of
his voice:

“Help! Help!”

“Say!” suddenly cried Ned. “The rapids! He’ll be down in them soon, and
they’re dangerous with the water as high as it is now! That house will
be knocked to pieces!”

“That’s so!” agreed Jerry. “Noddy ought to swim ashore while he has the
chance. Otherwise he may be hurt! I forgot about the rapids.”

The “rapids” were really not very dangerous at low water, but when
the river rose, and dashed over the jagged rocks, about a mile below
town, they formed eddies and whirlpools that were exceedingly risky to
navigate. In fact no boats dare risk them with the stream at flood.

It was toward these rapids that Noddy’s boathouse, torn away by the
waters, was rapidly drifting. The crowd soon realized this and began
shouting advice.

“Swim ashore!”

“Get a boat and save him!”

“Jump off!”

“Throw him a rope!”

These were some of the expressions called to Noddy, but he paid no heed
to them, continuing to race up and down on the platform, waving his
hands, and yelling for help.

“Say, something ought to be done to help him,” remarked Ned in a low
voice.

“Yes,” agreed Jerry. “It’s Noddy Nixon, and he’s been pretty mean to
us, but I suppose----”

“Our motor boat!” interrupted Bob, pointing to a fine boathouse a
little distance up the stream. It was where the boys kept their craft,
and was above the point where the swollen mill stream joined the river,
and so, consequently, was in no danger.

“I guess it’s up to us to save him,” said Jerry slowly. “Nobody else
seems to have sense enough to do it. There aren’t any other motor boats
near by.”

“Where’s Noddy’s, I wonder?” asked Mr. Snodgrass, for he knew that the
bully owned a power craft.

“He had a collision with the dock the other day, and sprung a leak,”
explained Andy Rush, who had cooled down somewhat. “His boat is laid up
for repairs.”

“Like our auto,” put in Ned, for the machine of our heroes was across
the river, in a distant town, being overhauled.

“Well, if we’re going to save Noddy Nixon, we’d better be getting a
move on!” cried Jerry. “Come on, fellows!”

He raced toward their boathouse, followed by his two chums, the
professor and Andy Rush. It was the work of but a few minutes to
unchain the motor boat, run it out into the stream, start the engine
and steer down after the floating boathouse with the frantic figure
racing about on the platform.

“Hurrah!” yelled the crowd, when they saw our heroes start out. “The
motor boys to the rescue! Noddy’ll be saved now, all right!”

“Help! Help!” yelled the bully, as his boathouse careened dangerously,
almost throwing him into the water.

“The flood’s getting higher,” said Ned in a low voice, as he looked
over the side of the boat. They were opposite the dam now, and in the
grip of the rushing waters.

“Yes, there goes another slice of the dam!” cried Bob, as they saw a
large portion of it slip into the water. The men on top, who had been
endeavoring to stop the gap, had to race for shore.

“Say, we’re going to have our work cut out for us saving Noddy!” cried
Jerry as he held the wheel in a firmer grasp.




CHAPTER III

NODDY BEGINS PLOTTING


“Ned, give me a little richer mixture!” cried Jerry, as the motor boat
shot down the current, pitching and rolling in the waves caused by the
influx of the mill stream. “I need all the power I can get. Cut down
the air a bit, and turn on a little more gasolene!”

Ned bent over the carburetor, and adjusted it, while Jerry watched his
own steering to see that he did not run the boat into the many floating
logs and boards that had been carried into the river by the flood.

“Need any help?” sung out Bob.

“Not up here, but I wish you’d sit on the other side, Chunky,” replied
the steersman, giving Bob the nickname that had been applied to him
because of his stoutness. “That will trim the boat better, and she’ll
ride easier. Professor, would you mind moving up nearer the stern. I
want to get the bow as high as I can.”

“Just a moment!” exclaimed the scientist. “I thought I saw a new kind
of water spider. Yes, there it is! Hold the boat back a moment, Jerry.”

“Can’t do it!” cried the tall lad. “This current is fierce!”

The professor suddenly made a lunge over the side with outstretched
hands, and the boat careened dangerously.

“Look out!” cried Jerry.

“I’ve got him!” answered the professor. “Oh, it’s a fine specimen!
I never had one so good. Where’s my spider-box?” and with one hand
tightly clasped, holding the water insect, the scientist, with the
other, began searching in his pockets for the box to contain his prize.

“I’ll get it for you,” volunteered Bob.

“It’s in my left hand coat pocket,” said the professor.

The insect was soon in captivity and then, as the boat shot ahead under
increased power, due to the change in the gasolene mixture, all on
board gazed at the floating boathouse, and the unfortunate owner of it,
who was still rushing about, unable to do anything to help himself.

“Look!” cried Andy. “It’s going to flop over!”

It did seem as if the structure would turn turtle, but a swirl in the
current righted it, and once more it floated on a level keel, so to
speak.

“Help! Help!” cried Noddy, waving his hands at the boys in the motor
boat.

“We’re coming!” shouted Ned. “Keep cool!”

“Wow! Steady! We’ll save you--don’t jump--it’s all right--not as bad as
it might be--hold fast!” excitedly cried Andy Rush.

“Keep still!” ordered Jerry. “You’ll have him jumping overboard next,
Andy.”

“All right,” agreed the little lad, sitting down on the cushions, and
holding to the rail to keep his nerves in control.

The motor boat was now well down the flooded river, and aided by the
current and her engine, was rapidly approaching the floating boathouse.
The latter structure was whirling about, careening from side to side,
now on one edge of the stream, and now on the other.

“It’ll soon be in the rapids,” spoke Ned in a low voice.

“We’ll get there before that,” said Jerry confidently.

“How you going to get him off?” asked Bob. “Run along side and have him
jump, or make fast?”

“I’m certainly not going to make fast to that house,” replied Jerry.
“It would pull us over the rocks, I’m afraid. I guess Noddy will have
to jump, and swim for it. Then we can pick him up. Ned, stand ready
with that life preserver, and see that it’s fast to the rope.”

“Aye, aye, sir!” answered Ned, seaman fashion.

He made ready the cork ring, with its accompanying line, and took his
place in the bow, ready to cast it when Jerry should give the word for
Noddy to jump. The lad on the boathouse platform was standing, and
looking at the approaching motor craft, waving his hands frantically,
and occasionally calling for help.

“Why doesn’t he keep still?” spoke Jerry. “We’re coming as fast as we
can.”

“Better not go much nearer,” advised Ned. “I can hear the roar of the
rapids. They’re just around that turn.”

“I’m going to tell him to jump now,” said Jerry. “He’s a pretty good
swimmer, and he can keep afloat until we can pick him up. Get ready
with that ring, Ned.”

“All ready!”

Jerry stood up, and, bracing one knee against the wheel, to aid his
hands in holding it steady, he shouted:

“Jump, Noddy! Jump! We’ll pick you up! Jump!”

“I--I’m afraid to,” whimpered the bully.

“You’ve got to!” yelled the tall steersman determinedly.

“I--I----” Noddy looked as though he were going to slump down on his
knees, but a sudden swirl of the current saved him the necessity of
jumping, for he was thrown off the slanting platform into the water.

“There he goes!” cried Bob.

“The ring! The ring! Throw him the ring!” shouted Jerry.

As Noddy went under the swirling waters, Ned leaped out on the bow deck
of the boat, with the ring in his hand, watching for the reappearance
of the bully.

“There he is!” cried Andy Rush.

With sure aim Ned sent the life preserver toward Noddy. It fell true,
almost over his head, and, a moment later, he had grasped it with a
desperation born of despair.

[Illustration: WITH SURE AIM, NED SENT THE LIFE PRESERVER TOWARD NODDY.]

“Pull him in!” ordered Jerry, and Ned and Bob began hauling on the
line. A few seconds later, half unconscious, pale, and with closed
eyes, Noddy was pulled on board.

“He’s dead!” cried Andy.

“Nonsense!” exclaimed Jerry, as he began to turn the boat toward shore.
“He wasn’t in the water more than three minutes. He’s fainted, I guess.”

“Better get him to shore as soon as possible,” suggested Professor
Snodgrass. “He may have been injured.”

“I’m heading for that dock over there,” remarked Jerry, pointing to
one on the Cresville side of the river. “We can lay him out there, and
give first aid to the injured, and, if he’s swallowed any water, we can
drain it out of him. Keep his head low and his feet high, fellows,” he
said to Bob and Ned, who were holding Noddy. The rescued lad had not
opened his eyes.

It was a hard fight against the powerful current of the flooded river
to gain the dock, but Jerry made it, for the engine of our heroes’
craft was a fine one.

“Get him out now!” cried the tall lad, as he made the boat fast on the
lower side of the dock, where the swirl of the river would not affect
it. “Use artificial respiration.”

The motor boys knew how to do this, and in a little while they saw
that Noddy was breathing more strongly. It developed later that he had
been hit on the head by a piece of driftwood, rendering him partly
unconscious, so that he swallowed more water than he would ordinarily
have done.

“I guess he’s coming around all right now,” said Ned, as he noticed a
fluttering of Noddy’s eyelids.

“Here comes Dr. Preston!” added Bob, as he saw a young man, accompanied
by a small throng of persons, racing toward the dock. “He’ll know what
to do.”

Dr. Preston, who had been summoned by some one of the crowd who had
witnessed the rescue, was soon working over Noddy.

“He’s out of danger now, though he’s not fully conscious yet,” said the
doctor, after a few minutes. “It’s a wonder he had strength enough to
hold on to the ring as you pulled him in.”

“Well, when Noddy gets hold of a thing, he hates to let go,” remarked
Ned. “Say, fellows,” he added to his two chums, “a lot has happened
since we started to talk about that radium deposit on Snake Island, in
the Colorado canyon; hasn’t there?” he asked. “It seems like a week,
but it hasn’t been half an hour.”

“That’s right,” agreed Bob. “I want to hear more about that radium.
Let’s go back home, and the Professor can tell us. Noddy’s all right
now. If we could go to Snake Island and get some radium----”

“Hush!” suddenly exclaimed Jerry, nudging his chum.

“What’s the matter?” demanded the stout youth.

“No use talking about that, where every one can hear you,” went on
Jerry in a low voice. “Besides, Noddy is coming to, now. His eyes are
open.”

The rescued lad was much better now, and was sitting up, held by the
doctor, who was administering a stimulant.

“That’s so, I guess I had better keep quiet,” admitted Bob in a low
voice.

Quite a crowd had collected on the dock, and one man, who had a
carriage, offered to take Noddy home. This was decided on, and soon,
in the care of the physician, the bully was taken away. He had not
recovered sufficiently to thank his rescuers, but the motor boys felt
that the less they had to do with Noddy the better for them. They had
done their duty, and were content to let it go at that.

“Think we can go up against the current?” asked Ned of Jerry.

“I’m not going to try it. The river will soon go down, for the water
in the mill pond will all be out by night. We’ll just leave our boat
tied up here. No use taking any chances on hitting a floating log, and
stoving a hole in the _Dartaway_. We’ll come down and get her to-night.”

The motor boys made their way out of the crowd, from the members of
which came murmurs of praise at the plucky act of our heroes. Noddy’s
boathouse disappeared around the bend of the stream, and, a little
later, was pounded to pieces in the rapids.

The three chums, with the professor and Andy Rush, made their way back
to Ned’s house, talking on the way of what had happened.

“Well, it’s all over,” remarked Ned, as they came opposite the broken
dam. “See, the pond is almost emptied. They can mend the break now.
That was an exciting time while it lasted.”

“That’s right,” agreed the others.

“Let’s get that lunch we were starting on when Andy interrupted us,”
suggested Bob.

“Chunky, you’re hopeless!” cried Jerry. “You’d eat if the world was
coming to an end, I believe.”

“I would if I had time,” admitted the fat lad. “But there’s no use
letting the lunch spoil; is there, Ned?” and he appealed to his other
chum.

“No, I guess not,” agreed the merchant’s son. “Come on, Andy, have a
bite with us, but don’t you get excited or you may choke on a piece of
custard pie.”

“And while we’re eating maybe Professor Snodgrass will tell us more
about the radium on Snake Island,” suggested Bob.

“I think I’ve told you all that I know,” replied the scientist, “but
you may ask me any questions you like,” and, shortly afterward, while
still at the table, the little man was fairly bombarded with inquiries
about radium, its general properties, and in particular about the kind
that was to be found on Snake Island.

Meanwhile, Noddy was taken home, and nursed. He was weak and ill,
but this did not prevent him, as he lay in bed, from doing some hard
thinking.

“Radium; that was what those motor boys were talking of,” he murmured
to himself, as he felt of the bandage on his head. “Radium on some
place in a canyon. Canyon--canyon--Grand Canyon. I wonder where
that is? Radium; I know that stuff. It’s worth millions--but that
canyon--Oh, I know--the Grand Canyon of the Colorado! That’s it. Snake
Island! That must be a place in the river. I wonder if I could find it?”

Noddy dozed off for a moment. Suddenly he sat up in bed.

“I’m going to do it!” he exclaimed. “There’s no reason why they should
have it! I’ll get ahead of them! I’ve got as good a right to it as they
have!”

He was in deep thought for a minute.

“That college professor knows about it,” he resumed. “And if he knows,
other scientists know too. Radium is used in colleges for experiments.
I’ll do it! I’ll get Bill Berry, and we’ll find some other college
professor, and start after that radium ourselves. I’ll get ahead of
the motor boys for once in my life! Radium! It may be worth millions!”
and Noddy’s eyes gleamed as he unfolded to himself the plot he was
hatching against our heroes.

“I’ll start as soon as I can,” he went on. “It isn’t very far to that
Colorado canyon. That’s what I’ll do. Me and Bill will get that radium.
I guess I can find Snake Island as well as Jerry, Ned or Bob. They
didn’t think I heard them, but I did. I just kept my eyes shut. Oh,
I’ll fool ’em!”

And, mean bully that he was, forgetting that the motor boys had saved
his life, Noddy Nixon began making plans for going to Snake Island
after the deposit of radium, which was worth such a fortune.




CHAPTER IV

PLANNING A FORTUNE HUNT


“Well, I feel better now,” remarked Bob with a sigh of satisfaction, as
he pushed back his chair from the table.

“You look better, too,” spoke Jerry, with a laugh. “You haven’t that
worn and hungry appearance you had a while ago, and I guess the rest of
us can have a little peace now.”

“Peace? What do you mean?” demanded the stout youth indignantly.

“I mean that you won’t continually be talking about something to eat.”

“I guess you were hungry, too,” went on Bob. “I notice that your plate
is empty.”

“Here, you two quit scrapping,” advised Ned good-naturedly. “I guess we
were all hungry. It was the excitement over rescuing Noddy that caused
it.”

“That’s right!” chimed in Andy Rush. “Whoop! That was exciting
all right. Let’s go back and see if they’ve got the busted dam
mended--maybe there’s a lot of men drowned--maybe we can see where
Noddy’s boathouse went to pieces in the rapids--wow--some excitement
all right--I’m going--come on, fellows!”

“No, we’ve got business on hand,” answered Ned, a bit soberly. “But
don’t let us keep you, Andy.”

“All right, I’m going--I like excitement--maybe they’ll let me help
mend the dam,” and taking Ned’s words as a sort of gentle hint, the
excitable little lad arose from the table and was soon hurrying down
the street.

“I guess they’ll keep him away from the dam if they know what’s good
for it,” remarked Jerry, as he watched Andy hurrying away. “He might
talk so much that he’d put another hole in it. But what business did
you mean, Ned?” and he looked across at his chum.

“The radium business, of course,” returned Ned promptly. “You fellows
don’t mean to say you’re going to let a chance like this slip!”

“What!” cried Bob, “do you intend to go after it, Ned?”

“Well, I’m willing, if you and Jerry are, and if the professor would
like to go along----”

“Go where?” asked Uriah Snodgrass, looking up from a scientific book he
had started to read as soon as the meal was over. “Where do you want me
to go?”

“After the radium on Snake Island,” put in Jerry. “Ned thinks we can
get it, but I don’t know that it’s possible, after what you have told
us about how hard it is to get down into the Grand Canyon.”

“It _is_ hard,” said the professor seriously. “I haven’t in the least
made up my mind to go on the expedition, but whoever does go, ought
not to risk going in a boat, as the other scientists did. It is almost
certain death. I really don’t know how one could make the descent into
the canyon. The island, as I understand it, is in the middle of the
river, near a place where there are dangerous rapids and whirlpools.
The cliffs on either bank of the stream are impossible to scale.

“Of course at certain points it is possible to make a descent into that
great canyon. I remember reading an article on it and it stated that
there were several trails that could be used, Bright Angel Trail is
one, and then there are Bass’s, Boucher’s, Berry’s and the Red Canyon
Trail. Berry’s is near Grand View, as it’s called, and Snake Island
lies somewhere between that point and Bright Angel Trail. Oh, a boat is
out of the question, I think.”

“Then what’s the matter with our airship?” asked Ned quickly.

“That’s it!” cried Bob eagerly. “Why didn’t we think of that before?
We’ll go in the airship, fellows, and get that radium! It will be
just the thing! Here it is almost vacation time, school will close in
a couple of weeks, and that will be our summer outing--to go after the
radium fortune in our airship.”

“You forget that the airship is in Denver,” put in Jerry. “You know we
loaned it to Mr. Glassford to give an exhibition at the international
aero meet, and in his last letter he said he has won several prizes
with it.”

“But the meet is over; isn’t it?” asked Ned, who seemed unusually
excited over the prospective trip.

“Yes, and I suppose Mr. Glassford will soon be sending our motorship
back,” admitted Jerry. “But----”

“Oh, don’t go to finding a lot of objections,” broke in Bob. “What’s
the matter with leaving the airship out in Denver?”

“And walk out there to use it?” inquired the tall lad sarcastically.

“No, motor out there. Our auto will soon be out of the repair shop, and
we could have a fine time going West in it. Say, things couldn’t happen
better; could they, Professor?” and Bob began pacing up and down the
room.

“What has happened?” asked the scientist suddenly, for he had again
become absorbed in his book, and had paid no attention to the talk of
the boys. “Is anything the matter?”

“We’re still talking radium,” explained Ned. “Trying to get Jerry
enthused enough to go to Snake Island.”

“Oh, I’ll go if the rest of you do,” agreed the widow’s son. “Only it
doesn’t sound feasible. Our airship isn’t at hand, the motor is laid up
for repairs, and----”

“But we have the motor boat,” broke in Ned. “We can use that.”

“On dry land!” laughed Jerry. “Say, you fellows have great
ideas--great!”

“Give us some of yours then,” suggested Bob.

“Well, my notion is----”

“I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” fairly yelled Professor Snodgrass, leaping
from his chair, and holding the book above his head. “I’ve got it!”

“What is it this time?” asked Jerry. “A pink-eyed toad or a blue-nosed
grasshopper?” for the scientist was continually on the lookout for
strange and rare insects or reptiles.

“Neither one,” answered Mr. Snodgrass, “but I have just found, in this
book, an article telling about a strange double-tailed toad, very rare,
which is said to be a native of New Mexico. It is a species of the
horned toad, but very different. For years I have been investigating,
trying to get on the trail of this sort of toad, and now, most
unexpectedly, I come upon a clew. Boys, this has indeed been a
fortunate day for me. I shall start right away for New Mexico. I must
telegraph the college president at once that I can get a most valuable
specimen to add to our collection. Oh, this is indeed fortunate!”

The professor was rapidly making notes from the article in the book.
The boys looked at one another. Then Ned spoke.

“Fellows,” he said, “this just fits in. New Mexico is on the way to the
Grand Canyon--or at least it won’t be much out of our way to go there.
We can have a try for the radium fortune and at the same time the
professor can look for his tailless toad. How about it?”

“Two-tailed toad! Two-tailed!” cried the little scientist. “Don’t
make that mistake, Ned. But I think that will be a good plan. I was
undecided about it before, but, since you are going, I will go with
you, and I’ll do all I can to help you get to Snake Island.”

“And we’ll help hunt the two-tailed toad,” added Bob. “Now, how about
you, Jerry?”

“Oh, I’m game. I’ll go along, but we’ve got to straighten out about our
auto and motorship. First we’ll write to Mr. Glassford, asking him to
hold the _Comet_ in Denver for us. Then we must hurry the repairs on
the auto.”

Mr. Glassford, as my old readers probably remember, was the man who
first helped our heroes to construct their motorship. He had recently
borrowed their latest and largest craft for exhibition purposes.

“Well, get busy,” advised Ned. “Here is some paper. Take my fountain
pen and write some letters. It’s decided then; we’ll have a try for the
radium, and we’ve got to get a move on to get ready.”

“Here comes the postman,” spoke Bob. “I’ll get the mail, Ned.”

The stout lad came back with several letters. One was for Ned Slade. He
quickly tore it open, and, as he read it he gave a startled cry.

“What’s the matter--bad news?” asked Jerry.

“Sort of that way,” replied his chum. “This letter is from the man who
was repairing our auto. He says he discovered a flaw in the back axle,
and, in order to have a new one properly fitted in he sent the car to
Pittsburg, where there is a firm that makes a specialty of such things.
Our auto is in Pittsburg!”

“Then it’s all up with using it on the trip west!” exclaimed Jerry.
“We’ll have to go by train I guess.”

“No we won’t!” cried Bob eagerly. “Fellows, I’ve got a plan.”




CHAPTER V

NODDY’S PLOT DEVELOPS


There was a moment of silence following Bob’s announcement. Then Jerry
remarked:

“Well, go ahead, Chunky, and let’s see what you’ve got up your sleeve.
Are you going to suggest a wireless airship ride, or a motorless auto?”

“Neither one,” said Bob. “But I was going to say I didn’t see why we
couldn’t go in our motor boat as far as Pittsburg, pick up the auto
there, when it’s finished, go on in that to Denver, get the airship and
then keep on to Snake Island. I think----”

“Say, that’s all to the ice cream!” burst out Ned. “Bob, you have got a
head on your shoulders after all. That’s a fine idea, I think.”

“So do I,” agreed Jerry. “But can we go all the way to Pittsburg by
water?”

“Sure,” declared Bob. “Where’s a map? Ned, hunt up a geography.” One
was soon found and then the boys, bending over it, saw that by using
the river that flowed past their town for a number of miles, getting
into a little lake, and thence into another river, they could, by means
of a small canal get into a small river flowing into the Alleghany.

“We’d have to have the boat carted about five miles, but all the rest
of the way we can go by water,” explained Bob. “As soon as we hit the
Alleghany we’ll be all right. What do you say, Professor?”

“Anything you boys decide on will suit me,” answered the scientist, who
was still busy making notes. “I want to get that two-tailed toad, and
I’ll do anything in reason to secure a specimen. It strikes me that
Bob’s plan is a good one.”

“It won’t be monotonous, at any rate,” commented Ned. “A motor boat, an
auto and an aeroplane and dirigible balloon combined, ought to furnish
a variety of travel that would suit almost any one. I think it’s just
the cheese, myself.”

“Then we’ll do it,” decided Jerry. “I’ll write to Mr. Glassford, and
the auto firm right away, and we can mail the letters on our way home,
Bob. I’ve got to be going soon. I told mother I’d go calling with her
this afternoon, but I’ve been here nearly all day.”

The letters were soon written, and then Jerry and Bob taking leave
of Ned, started for their homes. Professor Snodgrass also sent word
of the prospective trip to the college authorities by whom he was
engaged. The scientist arranged to stay at Ned’s house until the time
of starting.

“Let’s go have a look at the broken dam,” proposed Bob when Jerry had
dropped the letters in the box. Accordingly they went a short distance
out of their way, down to the river. The excitement of the morning had
passed, and there was only a small crowd watching the mill men at work.
The waters had now subsided, but it would be some time before the dam
would be in shape to again hold back the stream, and provide power for
the turbine.

“It was a hot time while it lasted,” remarked Jerry.

“It sure was,” agreed his chum. “I wonder how Noddy is getting on?”

“Oh, all right, I guess. He’s so tough it takes a good deal to hurt
him. I suppose we’ll hear from his folks.”

The motor boys did, a few days later, Mr. Nixon sending Bob, Ned and
Jerry a formal note of thanks for what they had done for his son. Noddy
was getting on all right, his father said, and would soon be out of
bed. From Noddy himself no word came.

“I don’t wish him any bad luck,” spoke Ned, “but I hope he stays in bed
a couple of weeks.”

“Why?” asked Jerry.

“So he won’t have a chance to interfere with us. I’d like to get
started on our radium trip before he’s up and nosing around.”

“Why, he doesn’t even know we’re thinking of it,” put in Bob. “How can
he interfere?”

“Well, somehow or other, he has always, more or less, made trouble for
us whenever we go off on trips,” went on Ned. “I don’t know how it is,
but it generally happens. Maybe this will be an exception.”

“How soon before we can start?” asked Bob.

“Not for a couple of weeks,” replied Jerry. “School closes a week from
to-day, and then it will take us a week to get ready after that. We
haven’t much time now, on account of examinations. I’ve got to do some
hard studying to pass.”

“So have I,” admitted Bob. “Well, then, we’ll say in a couple of weeks.
Maybe Noddy won’t be around by then, and we’ll be all right. Did you
hear from Mr. Glassford, Jerry?”

“Yes, and he says he’ll have the _Comet_ all ready for us. He won’t
be there himself, as he has to come east, but he’s paid a man to take
charge of the motorship for us. The auto will be ready in two weeks,
also, for I had a letter from the factory where they’re repairing it. I
wrote to ’em to make a few changes in it, to bring it up to date. Our
motor boat, the _Dartaway_, needs a little overhauling, and then that
will be in shape.”

Following the smashing of the original _Dartaway_ in the freight wreck,
the boys had bought a much larger and finer craft, with a cabin, and
had named it after their first boat.

Their auto I have described in previous books. It was a large touring
car, with plenty of room for the passengers and also compartments where
food and supplies could be carried, and also a small tent with folding
cots, so that in case they desired they could camp out wherever night
overtook them. Recently a closed body had been put on the car, so that
it was very comfortable to travel in, even during a storm.

The motorship _Comet_ I have also described in other books, so I will
only mention it briefly here. It was a combination of an aeroplane and
dirigible balloon, and could be used as either or both.

The gas used in the bag was manufactured on board, as needed, and there
was a comfortable cabin, sleeping berths and an engine room, fairly
filled with motors, dynamos, air pumps, a gas generator and many other
mechanical contrivances. The motorship could be kept aloft a number of
days, and plenty of food and supplies could be carried, in addition to
several passengers. It was an ideal craft of the air.

In the days that followed the motor boys were kept busy. When they were
not “boning” away over their lessons they were getting the _Dartaway_
in readiness for the trip. Professor Snodgrass remained as the guest of
Mr. Slade, and the scientist spent most of his time wandering about the
woods and fields looking for rare bugs.

“I’m just as anxious to start as you boys are,” he said to them one
day, when he had paid a visit to the dock where the boat was tied up,
and where Bob, Ned and Jerry were cleaning the engine, and overhauling
the mechanism.

“Well, it won’t be long now,” remarked Jerry. “To-morrow ends school,
and then--for the best vacation we ever had!”

“And the radium fortune!” added Bob.

“Hush!” suddenly exclaimed the tall lad.

“What’s the matter? Did you see Noddy Nixon?”

“No, but there’s his crony, Bill Berry, in that boat,” and Jerry nodded
toward a rowing craft which a shabbily dressed man was propelling up
stream. “He’s pretending to be fishing,” went on Jerry in a low voice,
“but I believe he’s just spying around here to see what we’re up to.”

“That’s so,” admitted Bob. “I must keep quiet. But I’m glad it wasn’t
Noddy. I guess he isn’t out of bed yet,” and the boys kept on with
their work, the professor strolling off to see if he could get any
specimens, while Bill Berry rowed around a bend of the river, and so
out of sight.

But Bob was mistaken about Noddy not being out of bed. That bully had
gotten up for the first time that day, and, even while our heroes were
talking of him, he was sitting in the parlor of his father’s house,
trying to evolve in his mind a plan for learning more about the radium,
said to be located on Snake Island.

“I’ll need some one to help me,” mused Noddy. “I can take Bill Berry,
of course, but I need some scientific fellow who will know radium when
he sees it, for I don’t, and Bill certainly couldn’t tell it from a
lump of coal. I wonder what I can do?”

At that moment the door bell rang, and, as the servant happened to be
out, Noddy answered it. He saw, standing on the steps, a tall, lank
man, whom the word “sleek” seemed to describe better than any other.
The caller wore a long black coat, a flowing black tie, and had a tall
hat, while he carried a small valise in his hand.

“Ah, good afternoon,” began the stranger, smiling at Noddy. “I believe
I am speaking to the owner of the house?”

“No, my father owns it,” replied Noddy, not a little proud of being
taken for the head of the home. “But I can do any business, I guess. I
often help my father. His name is Nixon--I’m Noddy Nixon.”

“Oh, yes, I have heard of you. Your father is known to me by
reputation, and I have called to see him, as I have in the case of a
number of the most prominent men in town. But I fear I will have to see
Mr. Nixon personally.”

“Won’t I do?” asked Noddy. “I know a lot about my father’s affairs.”

“Well, I’ll tell you, and you can judge for yourself,” went on the
man, as he entered the parlor and sat down. “I am Dr. Kirk Belgrade,
head of the Mortaby Scientific School, a very important institution of
learning. I am traveling about, seeking to enlarge the scope of our
work, and, naturally I came to Mr. Nixon. I understand that he was
one of the endowers of a number of colleges, and I thought perhaps he
would give us a contribution. We confer degrees on those who aid us
financially, and there are a number of scholarships available. Perhaps
you yourself might be interested in taking up a new line of study.”

“I don’t know,” replied Noddy. “I go to a boarding school now, but it
isn’t very good. I might change. Where is your school?”

“Well--er--that is--well, to be frank we have no fixed place or
headquarters,” said Dr. Belgrade. “The Mortaby Scientific School is a
sort of correspondence institution. Our pupils are located all over the
world, and they get their lessons by mail, and also recite by mail.
There is a good profit in it, and I’m sure if your father invested he
would get a large return for his money. Some of the other prominent men
in town have given me encouragement.”

“Did you go to Mr. Slade, or Mr. Baker--or to Mrs. Hopkins--she’s a
rich widow?” asked Jerry.

“I did call on Mr. Slade and Mr. Baker, but I regret to say that
they--er--they turned me down,” replied the educator with an oily
smile. “They said they did not believe in my methods. But I assure you
that they are most up to date. I will call on Mrs. Hopkins, at your
suggestion, however.”

“Better not,” advised Noddy with a grin. “She and the Slades and Bakers
are all alike. They don’t want anything new. I know ’em. But maybe my
father would invest. He’ll soon be home, and you can wait if you like.”

“Very well, I will. I’ll show you some of our literature. I am one
of the principal instructors. In fact I may say that I am the whole
school, for all the other instructors come to me for advice. Just to
show you how up to date we are, I will mention that we have a small
laboratory----”

“Oh, say,” interrupted Noddy eagerly. “Do you happen to know anything
about radium?”

“Radium?” replied the visitor. “Of course I do--a great deal. Why, to
show you how advanced my college course is, let me say that we have a
small quantity of radium for experimental purposes.”

“You have!” exclaimed the bully, with increased eagerness. “The real
article?”

“Radium, I do assure you, the genuine article,” said Dr. Belgrade. “I
do not care to state just how I came into possession of it, but it is
in our laboratory.”

“But I thought you said you had no school building,” said Noddy,
suspiciously.

“Well, the laboratory is in my house, next to the bath room,” explained
the instructor. “It is not a very large laboratory, but I hope to
extend it soon. I need money, and I hope----”

“Radium!” interrupted Noddy. “Radium is worth money; isn’t it?”

“I should say it was, Mr. Nixon.”

“Would you like to know where to get some?”

“Would I? I would give up my present plans, turn my students over to an
assistant, and travel a long way if I knew where to find some. Why do
you ask?” and the man looked eagerly at Noddy.

“Do you know radium when you see it?” asked the bully.

“Indeed I do. I have made a special study of it, and I can detect it
in any form. I am not boasting when I say that there are few who are
any better informed about radium than I am. But what do you mean? Is it
possible that you have some radium?”

“I haven’t it,” said Noddy in a low voice, “but I know where there is
some. I’m glad you happened to call. I’ll tell you all about it, and
maybe we can go together.” Noddy got up and closed the parlor door,
shutting himself in the room with the sleek educator. Next he quickly
unfolded to him the plot he had formed, after having overheard what our
heroes had said about Snake Island.

“Is it possible!” gasped Dr. Belgrade, when Noddy had finished. “Is it
possible!”

“It must be, or those fellows wouldn’t plan to go after it,” replied
Noddy. “But I’m going to get ahead of them, if you’ll help me. Will
you?”

“Will I? Well, I guess I will! Now let’s make some plans. With your
father to finance our expedition, we may all become millionaires!” and
the head of the correspondence college rubbed his hands together and
smiled at Noddy encouragingly.




CHAPTER VI

OFF FOR PITTSBURG


“So we start to-morrow,” observed Professor Snodgrass one evening, when
the three chums were gathered about a table in the library of Ned’s
home. “It seems like a month ago that we decided to make the trip.”

“And yet it was only about two weeks,” returned Jerry. “We have had a
lot to do in the meanwhile, though.”

“But everything is in good shape,” remarked Bob. “We’ve got enough grub
aboard to last until we get to Pittsburg, I think.”

“Oh, of course!” laughed Jerry. “You can trust Bob to look out for the
‘eats’ every time. I think we’ll make him the permanent commissary
general.”

“Well, I notice you always come around when the dinner bell rings,”
remarked the fat lad significantly.

“He’s got us there,” admitted Ned. “But it’s a good thing Bob does look
after the food, for we’re always sure to have enough. Now let’s see
where we’re at. Hand me that list, Bob, and we’ll check things off. If
we’re going to start to-morrow we will have to get any last things we
need to-night.”

The three chums went over the list together, the professor poring
deeply into a scientific book, making occasional notes, and at times
thinking of the two-tailed toad he hoped to get as a result of the trip.

“Well, so far Noddy hasn’t bothered us any,” remarked Ned, when they
had completed the checking of the list, and found that everything
needed was on the boat, or in readiness to stow away.

“He’s out and around,” remarked Jerry. “I saw him down the street this
afternoon.”

“You did! And did he speak to you?” asked Bob.

“Just sort of nodded and thanked me for the way we fellows pulled him
out of the water. He wasn’t very enthusiastic over it, though, and he
looked rather thin and pale, I thought.”

“Maybe he was hurt worse than we imagined,” suggested Bob. “Well, if he
doesn’t make any trouble for us, I’ll be satisfied. But I guess it’s
time I went home. I want to get plenty of sleep, for I’m going to get
up early.”

“Same here,” said Jerry. “I guess everything is in shape. We’ll meet at
my house, as that’s nearest the river, and then we’ll get started as
early as we can.”

“It’s all settled then; is it?” asked Professor Snodgrass.

“Everything,” replied Ned. “We’ll go by motor boat to Pittsburg, get
our auto there, and ride across to Denver, and from there make the rest
of the trip by airship. I guess that’s the best way to get down into
the Grand Canyon.”

“It’s really the only way,” said Mr. Snodgrass. “Boats are almost out
of the question, and to follow the trails down the sides of the big
chasm wouldn’t help us much, for Snake Island is far off from any of
the places by which you can get down to the river’s edge. But with an
airship we can descend as well as if we were in an elevator. Yes, I
think you boys have made the best possible plan.”

Bob and Jerry left Ned’s house soon after this, and, on the way to
their homes they went past the Nixon residence. Bob, looking up,
exclaimed:

“Noddy’s sitting up late to-night. There’s a light in his room.”

“So I see,” replied Jerry. “Well, if he stays up late he’ll sleep late,
and we’ll get off before he knows it.”

“Why, are you worried about him?” asked the stout lad.

“Yes, I don’t mind telling you that I am.”

“Why?”

“Well, because I’ve seen Bill Berry hanging around lately. You know
how thick he and Noddy are, and I shouldn’t be a bit surprised but what
Bill was trying to find out where we are headed for this time.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Oh, just so he and Noddy could make trouble for us. It wouldn’t be the
first time they have camped on our trail.”

“No, that’s right. But I guess we’ll fool ’em this time.”

But if Bob and Jerry could have looked into Noddy’s room at that
minute, they would have been made aware that they had plenty of cause
for suspicion.

For, as our two heroes passed on to their homes, glancing back
momentarily at the light in Noddy’s window, that bully was in close
conversation with a certain sleek individual, who, for the present,
chose to masquerade under the name of Dr. Kirk Belgrade.

“Do you think you can find out when they go, and where they are headed
for--I mean exactly?” asked the correspondence school man.

“Sure I can,” declared Noddy. “I’ve had Bill Berry on the watch for
the past week. They’re going to start in their motor boat to-morrow
morning.”

“To where?”

“Well, that I don’t know exactly. I’ve tried to find out but I can’t.
Bill sort of fell down on that job. But I’ll get wind of it somehow.
I know where their auto was sent to be fixed, and the man there knows
my father. He’ll tell me where they are headed for, I’m sure. But even
if we don’t find out, we can go West on our own hook, and locate Snake
Island. The rest will be easy, and we’ll get that radium before they
do.”

“I hope so,” spoke the educator. “I certainly need the money, and I
have given up everything for this chance. The Mortaby Scientific School
will have to get along without me for a time, but when I come back,
with a fortune, I will build a real college.”

“First we’ve got to get the radium, and beat the motor boys!” exclaimed
Noddy, as he grinned in anticipation of the trick he expected to play.

“You don’t like them, then?”

“I hate ’em all!” snarled the bully, “even if they did pull me from the
river. If they hadn’t, someone else would.”

“Well, I hope we can soon start West,” went on the sleek individual.
“When will your father give me some money?”

“To-morrow or the next day,” replied Noddy. “He is willing that I
should undertake the trip. I told him I needed it for my health.”

Then the two talked over the details of their plot, sitting up until
late in the night, while our heroes peacefully slumbered, and dreamed
of strange adventures on Snake Island in the Grand Canyon of the
Colorado.

Bright and early the next morning Bob and Ned, with the professor,
assembled at Jerry’s house. The last preparations had been made,
good-byes had been said, and the motor boat looked over for the last
time. She was pulling uneasily at the mooring lines, which held her
fast to the dock, for there had been a heavy rain, and the river was
much swollen. It was as if the boat was anxious for the boys to come
aboard.

“All ready?” asked Jerry.

“All ready,” replied Ned, and then, waving good-byes to Mrs. Hopkins,
they started for the pier. It did not take them long to put their
handbags aboard, and, once the professor was comfortably settled aft,
in the open cockpit, he began scanning the water for rare insects.

“All aboard!” cried Jerry, as he took his place at the wheel.

“All aboard,” answered Ned.

“Then let her go,” ordered the steersman, and Ned turned over the fly
wheel to start the motor.

There was a cheer from the little crowd that had gathered on the dock
to see our heroes start. Andy Rush was among them.

“That’s the stuff!” cried the excitable little chap. “Off you go--wish
I was along--never say die--blow up the boiler--whoop--off for
Pittsburg!”

“Say, I wonder if he ever will calm down?” remarked Bob, helplessly.

“I’m afraid not,” commented Ned.

“I wish he hadn’t said that last,” said Jerry in a serious tone.

“Why not?” asked Ned, as the _Dartaway_ swung out from the dock.

“Because I’d just as leave everyone wouldn’t know where we are going.
It might get to the ears of----”

“Look!” cried Bob in a low, tense voice.

“What is it?” asked Ned.

“There’s Bill Berry, and Noddy Nixon is with him,” went on the stout
lad, pointing across the water, to where, a short distance away, there
floated a rowboat, containing the two enemies of the motor boys.




CHAPTER VII

IN DANGER


Jerry, Ned and Bob were gazing straight into the faces of Bill Berry
and Noddy Nixon. The two cronies, in turn, returned the stare, and
to our friends it seemed as if there was an insolent look on Noddy’s
face--a sort of half smile of triumph, as if he had divined their
plans, and was going to try to frustrate them.

“Mind your wheel!” suddenly called Ned sharply to the tall steersman.
“There’s a rock just ahead of you, Jerry!”

“That’s so, I forgot about that,” and Jerry twisted the rudder about so
that the _Dartaway_ swung toward the middle of the stream, missing the
rock by a narrow margin.

“Too close for comfort,” murmured Bob.

“That’s right,” agreed Jerry. “I don’t know why I should have stared so
at Noddy.”

“It looks as if he and Bill came out on purpose to see us off,”
commented Ned, as the motor boat rapidly opened up a gap between
herself and the rowing craft. “I wonder if he heard what Andy said
about Pittsburg?”

“I’m afraid so,” said the tall lad. “Sounds carry very clearly over
the water, you know, and Andy has rather a loud voice. Well, it can’t
be helped, and I suppose the only thing for us to do is to be on our
guard.”

“That’s all,” agreed Ned, and by this time they had gone around a bend,
losing sight of the rowboat, and the dock from which they had started.
The last glimpse they had of Andy Rush was when that excitable chap was
dancing up and down, waving his hands to them, and doubtless letting
off all sorts of explosive expressions.

Professor Snodgrass, during this episode, had taken no part in the
conversation, remaining quietly in his place, scanning the water for
a glimpse of some rare aquatic insect. At times he would dip into the
river a small net he carried, and, bringing it up filled with mosquito
wrigglers, or other forms of life, he would gravely examine his catch
through a magnifying glass.

“Ah, here is a rare one!” he would occasionally cry. “A triple-jointed
worm. But I don’t understand how it got into the water, as it is a form
of land life. This is very puzzling. I must make notes on this. Perhaps
the worm, having lived on land all its life, is going to become
aquatic in his habits, as the whale did centuries ago. It is very
strange.”

“Let’s see the worm, Professor?” requested Ned, when he had adjusted
the motor to work smoothly, and while Jerry was steering in and out to
avoid floating logs.

“There it is,” said the scientist, lifting the specimen out of one of
the glass-topped boxes. “A beautiful creature! Most perfect! And yet I
cannot account for it being in the water. I shall devote a good deal of
space in my new book to this find. Perhaps I am the first to discover
it, and, if so, I shall be made an honorary member of the Society for
Advanced Scientific Research. A most beautiful and perfect specimen!”

“Why, it’s an angle worm--a fish worm!” cried Bob, as he caught sight
of the wriggling creature. “A common, ordinary angle worm!”

“Of course it is,” agreed the professor. “I know that. It is, as you
say, an angle worm--_angulus vermis_ it might be called or even _vermis
lophius piscatorius_. The first Latin words being merely indicative of
angle and worm, while the latter, which I prefer, indicates the curious
fish known as the angler, and which is said to catch other fish by
angling for them with some attachment to its head, which resembles a
baited hook. Of course it’s an angle worm, Bob, but the funny part of
it is how did it get in the water?”

“Easily enough,” spoke Ned. “The river is much higher than usual, and I
suppose it has overflowed some bank, and washed the poor worms out. I’m
afraid, Professor, that you can’t claim to be the discoverer of a new
kind of worm.”

“Oh pshaw! I guess you’re right!” exclaimed Uriah Snodgrass in
disappointed tones. “That accounts for it. Well, I don’t want the
specimen then,” and he tossed it back into the water. There was a
little swirl, amid the muddy waves, and something grabbed the floating
worm.

“Fish!” cried Bob. “There are lots of fish around here, fellows. I’m
going to catch some for dinner.”

“There he goes again!” cried Ned with a laugh. “We’ve just had
breakfast, and yet he’s thinking of the next meal. Oh, Bob! You’re
hopeless.”

“All right, you don’t have to eat the fish,” retorted the stout lad, as
he got out his line and some bait he had thought to bring along. “I’ll
catch ’em, and Jerry and I and the professor will eat ’em. You can live
on canned sardines.”

“You won’t catch any with the water as high and as muddy as it is
to-day,” predicted Ned.

“Just you watch,” was all Bob replied.

He cast in, as Jerry steered the boat, the tall lad having to give his
whole attention to it, for the stream was filled with floating débris
that had been carried down by the rising water, and it required skill
to avoid collisions. But Jerry knew his business, and rarely did a log
scrape the _Dartaway_ ever so gently.

Bob went out on the little after-deck to fish, while the professor also
took his place there to look for more valuable specimens than angle
worms. Ned busied himself about the engine, and got out some packages
of food, and the dishes that would be needed for the mid-day meal.

Bob did have pretty good luck fishing, and, when noon came, he had a
number of good-sized specimens. In order that Jerry could enjoy his
meal without having to eat with one hand and steer with the other, the
boat was tied up in a little cove and there Bob proceeded to get dinner
on the gasolene stove that was in a small galley off the main cabin.

“Um! But this is good!” murmured the stout lad with his mouth fairly
well filled.

“It’s a bad habit for cooks to praise their own broth,” remarked Ned.

“Well, isn’t it good?” demanded Bob.

“Of course it is,” put in Jerry. “It’s a good meal, Chunky, and Ned is
only jealous. Don’t mind him.”

“I don’t intend to,” declared the stout lad, helping himself to more
fish.

They started off again after dinner, and making good speed, aided by
the current of the river, they found themselves that night on a small
lake into which the stream emptied. They tied up near shore, and, the
collapsible bunks being let down, they retired, after sitting up for a
while, talking over the events of the day.

“This sure is sport,” declared Ned, as he pulled the blankets over him,
for, while the day was warm it was cool at night on the water.

“It’s the right way to spend a vacation,” agreed Bob.

“And when we get in the auto, and the airship, we’ll have more fun
yet,” predicted Jerry. “I’m anxious to get to Snake Island.”

“I hope that place doesn’t get its name from the fact that it’s filled
with snakes,” commented Ned, in sleepy tones. “I hate the things.”

“I hope there are a lot of the reptiles,” spoke the professor. “I may
be able to get a few specimens. And I certainly do want to get that
two-tailed toad.”

“And I want some radium,” added Jerry.

The next day’s trip was without incident, and by night they had crossed
the lake to its outlet, down which they expected to proceed for about a
hundred miles.

The first part of this trip was delightful, but on the third day it
rained hard, and they had to stay cooped up in the cabin, which was not
much fun. But the storm could not last forever, and the sun finally
came out, to the satisfaction of all.

“Well, we’ll soon have to take a little land journey,” remarked Ned, at
the close of the fifth day of their trip.

“How’s that?” asked the professor. “Are you going to desert the boat?”

“No,” spoke Bob, “but by to-morrow noon we’ll come to the end of water
travel, for a short space. That is, we’ll need to have the boat hauled
over land to the canal that connects with the river by which we will
get on the Alleghany. I wrote to a man who is going to move the boat,
and he promised to be on hand with a big truck, and some helpers. We’ll
run the _Dartaway_ up on the truck, drive over to the canal, and float
her again. Then it will be smooth sailing to Pittsburg.”

“And we haven’t seen a sign of Noddy Nixon,” remarked Ned.

“I hope we don’t--the whole trip,” spoke Jerry earnestly.

It was a little before noon when they had gone as far as was practical
up the stream on which they were then motoring.

“The dock where the truck is to meet us must be around here somewhere,”
said Ned, who was steering.

“There’s a man just ahead, who seems to be waving to us,” put in Jerry.

“That’s the place!” cried the merchant’s son. “Now we’re all right.”

It was no easy work to get the _Dartaway_ out of the water, and upon
the truck, but finally it was accomplished by means of tackle and
windlass.

“Are you boys going to walk, or ride on the truck to the canal?” asked
the teamster, as he gathered up the reins of the four powerful horses.

“Guess we might as well ride,” decided Ned. “We’ll be there as soon as
you are then.”

Accordingly the boys climbed up on the truck, and seated themselves in
the cabin of their boat. The professor accompanied them, and the men
who were to help unload the boat dispersed themselves about the big
vehicle.

It was about a two hours’ ride to the canal, with so heavy a load, as
part of the distance was up hill. When about half of the journey had
been accomplished one of the men discovered that the boat was slipping
down toward the end of the truck, and a halt had to be called to shift
it forward.

“We don’t want it sliding off, and trying to navigate in the dust!”
exclaimed the truckman with a laugh.

Professor Snodgrass grew restless at the delay and finally climbed down
off the vehicle, with an insect net.

“I’m going to walk on ahead,” he remarked. “I may be able to catch a
few rare bugs. I think I can find the way to the canal all right, in
case you don’t overtake me.”

“It’s a straight road,” called Ned, who had provided himself with maps
of their journey.

The professor walked on, swinging his net from side to side in an
endeavor to catch a butterfly or bug.

“Has he been that way long?” asked one of the men of Jerry, as there
came a pause in the work of shifting the boat.

“What way?”

“Cracked, you know. Crazy--bug-house? Does he get violent?”

“Oh!” laughed the tall lad. “He’s not crazy,” and then he explained
what a scientist Mr. Snodgrass was.

“Um,” said the man apparently unconvinced. “It does take queer forms,
sometimes. I had a cousin who always wanted to sleep with his shoes on.
No accounting for their notions. Come on, now, all together! Heave!”

Jerry gave up the attempt to make the man understand, and, a little
later, the boat was shifted back to its place, and the journey resumed.

They were almost at the end of it, and were going down a slight hill,
when suddenly a dog, running out from a farmhouse, dashed at the off
forward horse, and nipped its leg. The frightened animal reared,
crowded its mate, and, a moment later, dashed ahead, breaking one of
the reins. The next instant the team of four powerful steeds was in a
wild gallop down the hill, the truck swaying from side to side in the
road, and the motor boat creaking and groaning as it strained at the
ropes that held it fast.

“Stop the horses!” yelled one of the men.

“We’ll have a smash-up in another minute if you don’t!” added Bob.

“The boat is slipping back again!” cried Ned. “Jerry--Bob--help hold
her on! If she slips off into the road she’ll be smashed!”

The lads braced themselves against their craft to prevent it sliding
off. Some of the men helped them, but, in spite of this, the terrific
speed of the truck threatened to bring about the danger they were
trying to avoid.

“Stop those horses, Bill!” yelled one of the men.

“I can’t!” cried the truckman. “One line is busted, and if I pull on
the other I’ll run them into the ditch, and then we _will_ be in a
mess. I’ve got to let ’em run it out.”

“They’ll run us into the canal if they keep on much longer!” cried
someone.

“Brace, everybody!” gasped Ned, as he felt the boat slipping nearer and
nearer to the end of the truck.

“Put on the brakes!” suggested Bob.

“Got ’em on, but that’s all the good it does,” responded the truckman.
“I’m afraid we’re goners, boys! Get ready to jump when you see the
water. Whoa, there! Whoa!” he called in vain to the horses, who were
still madly galloping down the hill.

“I guess it’s all up with the _Dartaway_,” murmured Jerry, as he
pressed his shoulder against the craft.




CHAPTER VIII

DOWN THE ALLEGHANY


The truckman was bracing himself in his seat, with his foot on the
brake, trying his best to check the speed of the big wagon. As for the
horses, he could do nothing with them, since, as he said, to pull on
the unbroken rein would only be to send the steeds floundering into the
ditch that bordered the road on either side. That is, providing the
animals answered the pull.

“Can you hold the boat?” cried the truck-owner, giving a glance over
his shoulder at the men and boys.

“We’re--trying!” gasped Bob, whose face was red from the effort he was
making. Ned and Jerry, too, as well as the men, were doing their best.

“There’s the canal, just ahead!” observed one man.

Jerry had a glimpse of water sparkling in the rays of the sun. The road
was now almost level, but the horses had not slackened their speed.
Just where the canal came to an end, the highway curved abruptly, and
it was not hard to guess what would happen if the runaways were not
checked.

Either they would swing around the curve with force enough to overturn
the truck, or, in their fright, they would plunge, boat, wagon and all,
into the water. There was not much choice between the two dangers.

“Get ready to jump!” yelled the truckman on his seat.

The boys were in despair. They saw their plans for a fine summer outing
partly spoiled, and their fine boat about to be wrecked.

Suddenly, from the bushes that lined the road, there ran out to the
middle of the highway, and a little distance ahead of the galloping
horses, a small man. At the sight of him Jerry cried:

“Look! It’s the professor!”

“He’d better get out of the way,” said the truckman grimly, in a
low voice. “Nothing can stop these animals now, until they wreck
everything. Look out!” he yelled to Mr. Snodgrass.

But the little, bald-headed professor did not have any such intention.
That was evident. There seemed to be something in the road that he
wanted. His net came down with a swoop, and he knelt in the dust.

“Look out!” came in a chorus from the men on the wagon.

Then, for the first time, Professor Snodgrass seemed to be aware of the
approaching vehicle, with the boat for a load.

Up he jumped to his feet, holding his long-handled butterfly net, and
staring at the approaching runaways through his big glasses.

“Get out of the way!” yelled the truckman.

The professor ran forward, waving his arms. In one hand he held his
broad-brimmed hat, while the other flourished the big, green net.

“Stop!” he cried, loud enough to be heard above the thunder of the
wagon wheels. “Stop! Stop! Don’t come on any farther. You’ll smash it!”

“Huh! We know that!” yelled the truckman. “But you can’t make these
horses stop by just inviting ’em to. Look out, or you’ll get hurt!”

But the professor came on, running straight at the runaways. Now he was
almost under their feet, but with a wild yell he still advanced.

Suddenly he threw his hat in the face of one of the leading horses,
and, with another quick motion, he crashed his long-handled net across
the eyes of the other. Then, nimbly leaping to one side, the professor
caught the broken, dangling rein, and braced back with all his might.
Though a small man, he was powerful, and his weight told.

“That’s the stuff!” cried the truckman. In an instant he began pulling
on the unbroken rein which he still held, and thus, with the professor
on one side, being dragged along, and the driver sawing on the
other line, the horses were pulled up evenly, a thing that had been
impossible before.

“By Jove! I believe they’re going to stop!” cried Jerry, as he noticed
a slackening in the speed of the horses.

“It’s about time, too!” added the truckman, as he looked at the waters
of the canal, not far distant. He continued to pull on one line. The
professor still clung to the other, and the brakes were jammed on.
Add to this that the road was level, and that the truck was heavily
loaded, and it can easily be seen that the horses, tired as they were
from their run, did not need much more to stop them. They came down to
a trot, then to a walk, and finally stopped. The truckman leaped from
his seat, after a glance to make sure that the boat was in no immediate
danger of slipping off, though it had slid back quite a way.

“Say, that was a plucky stop!” the man cried, holding out his hand to
the professor. “I’ve caught some runaways in my time, but never better
than that. You saved us from a bad smash-up.”

“Um! Well, perhaps I did,” admitted Uriah Snodgrass slowly, “but I
must confess I wasn’t thinking of that at the time. I wanted you to
stop before you got too far, that was all.”

“And didn’t you want to save us?”

“Oh, yes, of course. But you see I was just capturing a new and very
rare specimen of a yellow grasshopper when you came along. I almost had
him in my net, but he jumped under a stone, and I was afraid if the
horses came along they might step on the stone, and crush the insect or
run a wheel over him. That’s why I wanted to stop you. I’m glad I did,
though I’ll have to put a new handle on my net, for it’s broken. But I
must see if I have the grasshopper.”

He ran to a flat stone in the road, carefully raised it, and made a
grab for something underneath.

“I’ve got him! I’ve got him!” he cried. “Oh, you little beauty! You’re
worth at least fifteen dollars. Oh, I’m glad I stopped the runaways!”

“Well, you are a queer one,” murmured the truckman as he proceeded to
tie the broken rein, and then he and his men made the slipping boat
secure, to hold until they could cover the short remaining distance to
the canal. “Stopping a runaway to save a grasshopper! That’s the limit!”

“But it’s a yellow grasshopper, and very rare,” put in the professor
with a smile, as he placed the insect in one of the cases he always
carried. “I doubt if any college but mine will have a specimen like
this. How did the runaway happen?”

The others told him about the dog that had scared the horses, and then
the boys, having expressed their appreciation of what the professor had
done, helped the men steady the boat for the rest of the trip.

The horses were quiet enough now, and soon had the truck at the edge
of the canal. There the work of getting the _Dartaway_ into the
water again was speedily accomplished, and, having paid the men, and
called the professor away from an ant hill he was examining through a
magnifying glass, the motor boys once more got underway.

“Talk about excitement, it’s with us almost from the start,” remarked
Ned.

“Yes, I thought our boat was a goner there, one spell,” added Jerry.
“It took all my nerve to hold on.”

“Mine too,” added Bob. “I think I’ll have to make a cup of coffee, and
take some sandwiches to quiet down.”

And this time neither Ned nor Jerry laughed at their fat chum.

Their trip along the quiet canal was uneventful, and in a few days,
after tying up nights along shore of the river into which the canal
opened, they swept out on the waters of the Alleghany, and were headed
for Pittsburg.

“I hope our auto is all ready for us, and that we don’t have to wait,”
remarked Ned one evening, as they got ready to retire for the night.

“Well, we’ll know by this time to-morrow,” spoke Jerry. “We ought to be
in Pittsburg then.”

“What are you going to do with the boat?” asked Bob.

“I’ve arranged to store it until we get back,” replied the tall lad.
“We’ll have to spend at least a day here, trying out the auto, and
laying in some supplies. In that time we can see that the boat is
properly put away.”

Professor Snodgrass sat up rather late that night arranging and
classifying some specimens he had caught, and it was nearly midnight
when he turned in. The boys were sound asleep, and the little scientist
was soon in the same blissful state.

What time he was awakened Jerry did not know, but he sat up suddenly in
bed, for he heard someone moving stealthily about on the after-deck.
Then the door of the cabin was cautiously tried:

“Who’s there?” cried the tall lad suddenly.

There was no answer, and reaching out his hand Jerry sought for the
switch that would turn on the electric lights which were operated by
a storage battery. As he felt the button, he heard a boat scraping
against the side of the _Dartaway_.




CHAPTER IX

OFF IN THE AUTO


“What’s the matter?” cried Ned, as he heard Jerry’s voice.

“Anything wrong?” demanded Bob sleepily. “Has anything happened, Jerry?”

“Not yet,” was the tall lad’s answer. “I fancy I was too quick for
them. But I thought I heard someone on board, and I’m certain that a
boat scraped against our side. I’m going to have a look.”

“Better be careful,” advised Ned, as he pulled on some garments. “They
may be river thieves.”

“Thieves! Thieves!” cried Uriah Snodgrass, sitting up suddenly. “Are
they after my specimens! Don’t let them get anything, boys! Those
specimens are more valuable than gold! Oh, where are my glasses? I
can’t see a thing.”

“Switch off all the lights!” whispered Ned to Jerry. “They can see us
in here, and we can’t get a glimpse of them. Turn ’em off!”

Jerry did so, and at once there came another sound as if someone was
out on the small after-deck.

“Who’s there?” challenged Ned.

There was no answer. Once more came the noise of a boat rubbing against
the side of the _Dartaway_, and a cautious voice could be heard
whispering:

“Come on! Can’t do anything now!”

“Who are you? What do you want?” demanded Jerry, but he received no
answer.

With a quick spring Ned was at the cabin door that opened out into
a sort of cockpit, and thence, by a short companionway to the deck.
Throwing the portal open, Ned flashed on a small searchlight. As he
played it about the river he picked up a small boat, containing two
persons, who were rowing quickly away.

“What did you want? Were you on our boat?” demanded Ned, and then, as
the two in the small craft maintained a silence, Ned flashed the light
full in their faces. As he did so he gave a cry that brought Jerry and
Bob out to him.

“What’s the matter?” cried the tall lad. “Are you hurt, Ned? Did they
attack you?”

“No, I’m all right. But look at that boat! See who’s in it!”

Jerry and Bob gazed across the stretch of black and swirling water,
illuminated by the shaft of light from the search lantern. It threw
into bold relief the boat and the occupants.

“Noddy Nixon!” gasped Jerry, as he saw the face of the bully.

“But who’s with him?” asked Bob. “I’ve never seen him before, that I
know of.”

“He’s a stranger, I guess,” said Ned. “Noddy must have hired him to
help get ahead of us.”

“But what were they doing here?” asked Bob.

“Trying to sneak up while we were asleep, to see what they could get, I
suppose,” remarked Jerry.

“My specimens!” exclaimed Professor Snodgrass, who had come out to join
the boys. “That’s what they were after. That yellow grasshopper is what
they wanted!”

“I don’t believe so,” said Jerry in a low voice, as he watched the two
rowing rapidly away--Noddy and a tall man, the latter with a sleek
appearance, as though he was always trying to figure out the easiest
way of getting something for nothing.

“Hello you, Noddy!” suddenly called Ned. “What did you want here?”

The bully and his companion kept silent.

“If you come around again I’ll turn the hose on you,” threatened Bob.

There was no reply, and a moment later the rowboat went around the end
of a projecting dock, and was out of range of the light.

“Well, if they weren’t after my specimens what did they want?” inquired
the professor.

“I’ll tell you what I think,” went on Jerry as they returned to the
comfortable cabin, for it was cool in the night air, and they were
lightly clad. “I believe they sneaked on board to see if they could get
any clews as to where we are bound for.”

“You mean Snake Island?” asked Bob.

“Yes. You see Noddy doesn’t know the exact location, even if, in some
way, he has guessed, or overheard, some of us saying that we were going
to the Grand Canyon. He needs to know more definitely just where we’re
going, so he can sneak along, and try to get ahead of us.”

“Do you mean he was looking for a map?” asked Ned.

“Yes, or something like that. Maybe he thought we would be leaving our
traveling directions lying around loose.”

“Say, maybe it would be a good scheme to fix up a fake map, and leave
it where he could get it,” suggested Bob.

“Hardly,” decided Jerry. “He’d get on to the fact that it was a fake,
for he knows we wouldn’t be as careless as that. I think the best way
is to do just as we have been doing--make no map or sketch of where
we’re heading for. In fact we can’t, for we’ve got to prospect around
ourselves to find Snake Island.”

“Then we’ve got to be on our guard against Noddy,” suggested Ned.

“All the while I’m afraid, since he’s taken to trailing after us,”
resumed Jerry. “I’d like to know who that fellow was with him. He looks
like a sleek rascal.”

“Like Bill Berry, only different,” was Ned’s opinion. “I wonder where
Bill is?”

“Oh, probably hanging around somewhere,” came from Bob. “He and Noddy
generally travel together.”

There was nothing more that could be done that night, save to see to
it that the cabin doors and windows were securely fastened. Jerry left
the searchlight aglow, as he thought this would discourage any further
attempt to board the motor boat. And, as a matter of fact, our friends
were not disturbed again that night.

They made an early start for Pittsburg the next morning, keeping a
watch for Noddy, but they did not see him. By noon they had tied up at
the wharf where their boat was to be hauled out for storage.

“Now for the auto!” exclaimed Jerry, when the craft had been safely put
away, and such stores as they needed, together with their clothing,
weapons and other things, had been piled up ready to be put in the
motor car.

They found that the repairs to their machine were almost completed, and
that the car had been greatly improved. A new body had been put on,
giving more room, so that, if necessary, they could sleep on board. And
a small gasolene stove had been fitted up, so that a simple meal could
be prepared. You can easily see that this was Bob’s idea.

“Well, we can start in a couple of days,” announced Jerry after a visit
to the auto shop.

“And we’ll need that time to give her a try-out,” added Ned.

“And buy what grub we will need!” put in Chunky.

“Oh, forget the everlasting ‘eats’!” begged Jerry. “We don’t need to
take much. We can buy it as we go along, and it will be fresher.”

“I meant a few things like sandwiches, pickles and cake,” went on Bob.
“To eat between meals, you know. I often get hungry before it’s meal
time.”

“Oh, we know it! You needn’t tell us,” cried Ned with a laugh.

They tried their auto the next day, having put up at a hotel near the
repair works. The car made good speed, and seemed to have more power
than before.

“She’s great!” cried Jerry. “Now for a long trip West!”

Their preparations were complete. Almost at the last minute, though,
the professor nearly backed out. He found a curious bug in the hotel
where they stayed, and he wanted to remain a week or more, to hunt for
others.

“You’d better come on and look for that two-tailed toad, Professor,”
advised Jerry.

“Yes, I think I had,” agreed the little scientist. “But on our way back
we’ll stop here, and I can have another look for more of those rare
bugs.”

The auto, well filled with the goods of our friends, and themselves,
was ready for a start, and, having inquired the best route on from
Pittsburg, the boys, with Jerry at the wheel, set off one fine morning.
What lay before them they little realized.

On and on they went, over fairly good roads, until they came to the
open country. Then, having fixed the spark and gasolene levers to carry
them at a moderate pace, Jerry settled back to enjoy the scenery.

They had covered perhaps ten miles, and Bob was wondering whether he
dare mention cooking a light lunch, as they whirled along, when Ned,
who had looked back, uttered a cry.

“What’s up?” asked Jerry.

For answer Ned took a pair of powerful field glasses from a pocket
inside the car. He focused them on an auto that was coming rapidly
along behind the car of our friends.

“They’ve been following us for some time,” spoke Ned, “and I want to
see who they are.” He was silent a moment, and then he exclaimed:

“I thought so! Noddy Nixon again, and this time Bill Berry is with him,
as well as that other man! Fellows, he’s on our trail!”

“Well, here’s where he gets off!” cried Bob, as he reached his hand
in his pocket, and pulled out a small wooden box. He opened it, and
scattered something out on the road.

“What’s that!” cried Jerry.

“Big tacks!” answered Bob. “I thought something like this might happen,
so I got ready for Noddy. Some of those tacks will stick point upward,
and maybe something will happen. They’re good and sharp, and rather bad
for pneumatic tires,” he added with a laugh.

He tossed the empty box away, and he and Ned looked at the car coming
on behind them.

“Think they’ll hit ’em?” asked Ned.

“I hope so,” replied the stout lad.

Suddenly there was a commotion, and the pursuing auto was seen to
swerve to one side.

“There they go!” cried Bob. “Two tires to the bad, I think! I guess
they won’t follow us right away. Speed her up, Jerry!”




CHAPTER X

HELD UP


“That’s the way to do it, Bob!” exclaimed Ned.

“I never imagined you were such a plotter,” complimented Jerry. “How’d
you come to think of it, Chunky?”

“Oh, it just sort of came to me,” explained the stout lad, as he looked
back to see Noddy and his companions leap from their auto, and examine
the burst tires. “I figured that after the way Noddy’d been spying on
us that he’d try to follow us, so I got ready for him. I thought it out
that tire trouble was the easiest for me to bring about, and it would
hold him back as well as if it was something else. So I bought the
tacks.”

“And made good use of ’em!” chuckled Jerry. “You’re all right, Bob!”

Noddy Nixon straightened up from an examination of his stalled auto. He
shook his fist at our friends who were rapidly drawing away.

“I’ll--fix--you--for--this!” yelled the bully in a loud voice.

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to do it in,” remarked Bob with
a laugh. “You’ll have to use new shoes, and inner tubes too, I’m
thinking. Speed her up, Jerry.”

“All right,” and the tall lad turned on more gasolene, until the big
car was going along at a rapid pace.

“Not too fast,” cautioned Ned. “We don’t want to be taken in for
speeding, you know.”

“Not much danger,” returned Jerry. “It’s rather a lonely stretch of
country for several miles yet.”

“How do you think he managed to get after us so quickly?” asked
Professor Snodgrass, who, wonderful to relate, was neither looking at
his specimens, making notes about, nor seeking to capture others. He
had been too much interested in the chase and its sudden termination.

“Oh, he must have heard Andy Rush say we were going to Pittsburg,”
spoke Jerry, “and he merely came on here ahead of us, by train, while
we traveled by boat. Then he simply got his auto ready, and lay in wait
for us. But you put a spoke in his wheel, Bob.”

“Two or three,” chuckled Ned.

As they sped on they talked of Noddy, and speculated on what his plan
might be in regard to following them.

“It’s all guess work,” declared Jerry. “No matter what we do he may
turn up on our trail sooner or later. The only thing to do is to fight
him when we see him, be on our guard all the while, and not to worry.”

“I agree with Jerry,” said Uriah Snodgrass. “Now, as long as we’re so
far ahead, Jerry, can’t you go a little slower?”

“Why, does the speed make you dizzy?” asked the steersman, for indeed
the pace was very rapid.

“No, but I’d like a chance to look for insects on the bushes as we
pass. You never can tell when you may come across a rare specimen,” and
through his big glasses the professor anxiously scanned the bushes on
either side of the highway, for Jerry obligingly slackened the speed of
the big car.

“Are we going to sleep in the car or a hotel to-night?” asked Ned, as
the afternoon drew to a close, finding them about a hundred miles away
from Pittsburg.

“I vote for the car,” spoke Jerry. “We haven’t tried it in some time.
Besides, we can do as we please, and won’t have to bother with fixing
up, as we would at a hotel.

“Another thing. If we go to a hotel, Noddy may find it out, and he can
thus keep closer tabs on our movements. Whereas, if we sleep in the
car, on some country road, we can start off before daylight, breakfast
when we please, and no one will be any the wiser.”

“All right, the car it is,” agreed Ned. Anything suited the professor.

“Another good point about the car,” said Bob, “is that we can----”

“Eat whenever we want to,” finished Jerry with a laugh.

“I wasn’t going to say so,” retorted Bob. “I was going to say we could
sleep better here, for it will be quieter out under the trees than in a
hotel.”

“That’s the time he had you, Jerry,” laughed Ned.

“Well, pick out a good place as you go along,” advised the tall lad,
“and we’ll pull up there and stop.”

“That hill looks to be in a good location,” suggested Bob, pointing to
a rise in the distance. “There is a grove of trees there, and we can
pull into them for the night. Speed up, and make it, Jerry.”

The lad at the wheel was about to pull over the gasolene lever, and
adjust the spark, when, out from a little country lane, just in front
of the auto, leaped a man, with a shining badge on his coat, a club in
one hand and a revolver in the other. He held out his arms to obstruct
their passage, at the same time crying in loud tones:

“Halt! Hold on there! You can’t go any further! I’m the law, an’ I says
so. You’ve got to come with me!”

Jerry looked quickly at the speedometer, and saw that it registered
only about six miles per hour. He was glad he had not sent the car
racing ahead.

“Come on now! No tricks! Stop that car!” commanded the evident
official. “You’ve got to come with me.”

“What for?” asked Jerry. “Not for speeding evidently, for we were going
like a snail.”

“I didn’t say nothin’ about no speedin’,” replied the man. “It’s a more
serious charge than that. I’ve been on the lookout for ye a long time,
an’ I got ye, by heck! Come along!”

By this time Jerry had easily brought the car to a stop not far from
the grizzled man.

“What right have you got to stop us?” demanded the young steersman.
“Who are you, and what is the charge against us?”

“I’m Constable Enberry Snook,” was the answer, “and this here is
my authority,” and he tapped his badge with the club. “I derive my
authority from th’ selectmen of Huckleberry Township, an’ these
likewise is th’ main instruments that I use,” and he glanced from his
club to his revolver, and back at the party in the auto. “Now be ye
goin’ t’ come along peaceable like, or have I got t’ use force?”

“But I don’t understand,” said Jerry, while a puzzled look came over
the faces of the others. “We haven’t been speeding, and we haven’t
assaulted any one that I know of.”

“Of course not!” declared Ned.

“Well, I’ve been instructed t’ arrest ye,” went on Constable Snook,
“an’ I’m goin’ t’ do my duty, by heck! Now will ye come along
peaceable, or have I got t’----”

He did not finish the sentence, for with a cry that was startling in
its suddenness Professor Snodgrass, who had been sitting in front with
Jerry, fairly leaped from his seat, and dashed at the constable.

“Don’t move! Don’t stir!” cried the excited scientist. “I’ve got it!
It’s on you! Don’t move! I’ve been looking for it ever and ever so
long!”

A moment later he had hold of the constable’s coat.

“Here! Let me go! Onhand me! This is treason! Ye’re assaultin’
an officer in th’ performance of his office, an’ it’s ten years’
imprisonment fer that offense. Let me go, I tell ye! Don’t ye dare t’
strike me! I’ve got assistants with me. Help! Help! He’s chokin’ me!
He’s chokin’ an officer of th’ law!”

Mr. Snook, dropping both his club and revolver, sought in vain to pull
away from the grasp of Professor Snodgrass, and then the constable,
finding that the scientist had too firm a hold, pulled out a whistle,
and blew a shrill blast. A moment later two men, evidently farmhands,
each armed with a pitchfork, leaped out of the bushes at the side of
the road.




CHAPTER XI

NODDY IN ADVANCE


There was a moment’s pause, during which all the actors in the little
rural comedy looked at each other. And, as for the professor and the
constable, they did more than look, for the scientist still had a firm
hold of the other’s coat, and the man was pulling desperately to get
away.

“Are ye there, Sim an’ Jake?” gasped the constable.

“Thet’s what we be!” cried the taller of the farmers, evidently Sim, as
he advanced with ready pitchfork.

“Me too,” put in Jake. “What’s up, Enberry? Have them highwaymen
attacked ye?”

“Attacked me? I should say they had!” cried the constable. “That’s why
I whistled for help. Jab ’em!”

“Hold on!” cried Jerry, fearing the professor might get hurt. “Come on,
boys,” he urged Ned and Bob. “We’ve got to take a hand in this!”

“But what in the world does it all mean?” asked Ned.

“And what makes the professor act so queer?” Bob wanted to know.

“Don’t stop to ask questions!” cried Jerry, vaulting from his seat.
“Come on!”

The three boys advanced toward the group of men who now surrounded
Uriah Snodgrass. The scientist still retained his grip of the constable
with one hand, while with the other he was making cautious advances
toward the coat collar of the farmer-officer.

“Let me be!” cried the constable. “Jab him, Sim an’ Jake! Jab him!”

“Keep still,” ordered Professor Snodgrass. “I’ll have him in another
minute!”

“Ye’ve got me now, consarn ye!” snapped the constable, trying in vain
to pull away. “If ye lay another hand on me I’ll have ye sent t’ jail
fer life! Let me go, I tell ye!”

“Look out with those pitchforks!” cried Jerry, as he saw Sim advance
the prongs dangerously close to the professor’s legs.

“There! I’ve got it!” suddenly exclaimed the little scientist. His hand
made a descent on the farmer’s collar, and then, with something tightly
clasped in his fist, Mr. Snodgrass leaped back. Sim and Jake closed up
alongside of the man who had summoned them by whistle.

“What’d you take offen me?” demanded Mr. Snook suspiciously. “My badge?
Ef ye have----”

“I only took one of the most beautiful specimens of a green spider I
have ever seen,” was the answer of the professor. “I saw it on your
coat collar, and I was so afraid it would get away. I had to act
quickly. The only way was to grab you, for if you had felt the spider
on your neck, it might have tickled you, and you would have brushed
it off. Then it would have been lost for ever. Ah, but I have you, my
little beauty!” and the professor peered in between a crack in his
fingers to make sure that the spider had not escaped. A moment later he
had popped it into one of his specimen boxes.

“A--a spider?” gasped Mr. Snook, as if he had not understood.

“A _green_ spider,” corrected Mr. Snodgrass. “A most perfect specimen.
It was on your coat collar. A moment later it would have crawled on
your neck.”

“An’ if it had, I’d have squashed it, sure!” cried Mr. Snook. “I sure
would have squashed it! A green spider! Why I’d a squashed it, if it
had been a red, white an’ blue one! I hate ’em! Ye must be crazy t’
want ’em!”

“I want them for scientific purposes,” said Uriah Snodgrass, and then
he briefly explained that he traveled for a college that wanted all
the specimens he could collect.

“A college perfesser,” murmured Sim. “Say, Jake, it’s a good thing we
didn’t jab him.”

“I guess it is. An’ t’ think of any mortal man wantin’ such things as
bugs!”

“Well, everybody to their notion,” said Mr. Snook grimly. “If ye want
spiders ye’re welcome t’ ’em. But that don’t alter th’ fact that you
folks have got t’ come along with me.” He was less excited now.

“But I don’t understand,” spoke Jerry. “What is the charge, and who
makes it? Were you waiting here for us?”

“That’s what I was,” declared the constable. “I got a telephone t’
be on the lookout for ye. I was warned ye’d be desperit, an’ try t’
escape, so I swore in Sim an’ Jake as my special deputies. It looks
like I’d need ’em, too. Jake, stand by on this side of me, an’ Sim, you
git on th’ other. If they starts t’ run, jab ’em. Now, I arrest ye in
th’ name of th’ law,” and in turn he laid his hand on the shoulders of
Jerry, Bob, Ned and the professor. “Are ye comin’ along peaceable, or
shall I have t’ use force?” he asked again.

“If this is a regular arrest, by a regular officer we certainly will
come along peaceably,” replied Jerry. “But who makes the charge?”

“That I can’t tell ye. I got my authority from Judge Amos Blackford.
Ye’ll have t’ appear before him. It were him as were telephoned t’, an’
he passed it on t’ me.”

“And you really have the authority to arrest us?” asked Ned, still
doubting.

“There’s th’ warrant, sworn t’, all reg’lar an’ in due form, according
t’ law,” said the constable, pulling out a paper with a flourish. “Ye
kin look at it.”

Jerry read it quickly. It was merely a short form of bench warrant,
“sworn to on information and belief,” wherein the judge himself
appeared as the accuser, the real party’s name not being mentioned.

“If ye don’t believe that, ye kin ask Jake an’ Sim here if I ain’t th’
regular constable fer this township,” added Mr. Snook proudly.

“That’s what he is!” chorused the two farm hands.

“Well, then I suppose we will have to go with you,” admitted Jerry,
“though I don’t understand it. Come along, boys. Do you want to ride
with us?” he asked, turning to the two farm hands and the constable.

“Not for me,” spoke Sim, and Jake, too, shook his head. “I wouldn’t
ride in one of them gasolene wagons fer a month’s wages,” added Sim.

“Then I guess we can find room for you, Mr. Snook,” went on Jerry.
“That is if you’re not afraid of the machine, and don’t imagine that
such desperate characters as we are will do away with you.”

“Oh, I guess I kin trust ye,” said the constable with a sheepish grin.
“Th’ judge’s house is about a mile down th’ road. He kin hold court
there, an’ fine ye, I suppose.”

“But I don’t see what for,” said Jerry. “However, come along.”

They were soon in the auto, and had started off, the two hired men,
with their pitchforks, standing in the road with open-mouthed wonder as
the car shot away. Ned noticed that Mr. Snook grasped the sides of the
seat with nervous hands, as if he expected something to happen at any
moment. Chunky was a bit nervous, and Jerry was clearly puzzled. As for
the professor he was too much occupied in making notes about the green
spider to care whether he was arrested or not.

It was not a long run to the house of Judge Blackford, who lived in a
comfortable residence. He himself proved to be a genial, old-fashioned
gentleman.

“Well, Enberry,” he observed with a twinkle in his eyes as the auto
drove up, “you got the desperadoes, I see.”

“Yep,” answered the constable shortly.

“Did they abuse you much; have much trouble in capturing them?”

“Nope. They come along peaceable enough, though at one time----” and
then, thinking that he had not proved himself much of a hero in the
spider episode, the constable stopped.

“Out with it!” cried the judge with a laugh. “I’ll find it out sooner
or later.”

“I’ll tell ye later,” promised Mr. Snook nervously.

“May I ask what this is all about?” inquired Jerry. “The constable says
we are charged with assault and battery. By whom?”

“By Noddy Nixon!” was the unexpected answer of Judge Blackford.

“Noddy Nixon!” cried Jerry. “Is he here?”

“No. I’ll tell you how it was,” went on the magistrate. “I received a
telephone this noon, from Judge Lawton, of Middleville township. He
said a party of autoists had come to him, and had sworn that another
party of autoists, naming and describing you, had caused them to burst
two tires. And, as the tires burst, Mr. Nixon and his party were thrown
to one side of their car, painfully bruising and contusing them, as the
warrant says.

“So Judge Lawton, before whom the original warrant was sworn out, asked
me to issue a supplementary one, and to intercept you as you came
through here. Which I had to do, it being my duty. Now you can consider
yourself charged with the crime, and how do you plead. I’ll hold court
right here. Did you or didn’t you?”

“Well, I guess I did it,” answered Bob. “I threw the tacks in the road.
But it was to prevent Noddy from following us.”

Thereupon the judge was told as much of the story as Jerry and his
chums thought necessary to explain of their conduct, no mention
being made of the radium on Snake Island. He was told how Noddy had
repeatedly tried to take a mean advantage.

“Hum. That makes it different,” spoke Judge Blackford. “I reckon that
Nixon chap didn’t tell this to my friend Judge Lawton. Otherwise he
wouldn’t have asked me to issue a warrant. Now this is how the matter
stands.

“I was requested to apprehend and hold you for examination. That I
must do. This Nixon fellow promised to be here in the morning, at nine
o’clock, to give his evidence. I don’t believe he’ll come and face you.
But I must hold you until then. I ask you, in the meanwhile to be my
guests. Then, in the morning, if he does not appear, I shall discharge
you, and explain matters to Judge Lawton. I know he will approve of it.
Will you stay and dine with me? I’ll be glad of your company, and you
needn’t consider yourselves prisoners. You’re out on bail, so to speak.
Supper will soon be ready. Will you stay?”

“I--yes--of course we will!” cried Bob so quickly that both his chums
laughed, and Mr. Blackford looked at them curiously.

“Then the court is adjourned,” went on the magistrate. “Come in, boys,
after you leave your auto in the barn. You needn’t wait, Enberry.”

“All right,” answered Mr. Snook, who hurried off, looking over his
shoulder as if he feared he might see more spiders.

The boys found Judge Blackford to be a most congenial host. It
developed that he and Professor Snodgrass had once attended the same
preparatory school, and the pair exchanged pleasant memories.

The judge explained how Noddy had probably proceeded.

“After his tires were repaired,” he said, “the Nixon fellow must
have hurried on, following you. He figured out that you would
have to pass through here, as this is the main road. Then he went
to Middleville, swore out a warrant, which he had no right to do
under the circumstances, and the rest you know. I am sorry you were
inconvenienced.”

“Oh, it’s all right,” said Bob. “We’ll probably have a better meal
than if we ate in the auto; eh, fellows?”

“Say, Chunky, you are the limit!” cried Jerry, and then he had to
explain to the judge their chum’s failing.

The magistrate, however, took quite a liking to Bob, and soon there was
a merry party gathered at the table. The evening was spent pleasantly,
and there were plenty of comfortable beds in the judge’s big,
old-fashioned house, where he and his wife lived with some old servants.

Nine o’clock came next morning, but Noddy Nixon did not appear.

“He only did this to delay us,” declared Jerry, and the others agreed
with him.

“Well, if he isn’t here by ten I’ll formally discharge you, and send
the warrant back to Judge Lawton with an explanation,” said Judge
Blackford.

Ten o’clock brought no change in the situation, and holding court in
his library, the magistrate discharged the “prisoners.” Constable Snook
was on hand, and looked rather disappointed when he saw that he was not
to have the pleasure of taking the boys and the professor to jail.

“But we have strict laws agin’ speedin’ here,” he warned them, as Jerry
got out the car to resume the trip. “If I catch ye’ speedin’ I’ll have
t’ take ye in.”

“We won’t come this way soon again,” replied Jerry. Then, good-byes
having been said to the judge and his wife, our friends started on
their journey.

“I wonder what happened to Noddy?” spoke Ned, who had taken his place
on the front seat with Jerry.

“Oh, he has either turned back, or else he’s waiting until we get far
enough ahead of him so that he can follow as he pleases,” replied the
tall lad.

They had turned off the main road to reach the home of the judge, and
were now coming out of a sort of long country lane, thickly bordered
with trees, to reach the main highway again. As they were about to
swing around a turn they all heard the chug-chug of an auto.

“Someone’s coming,” remarked Ned.

“Yes. I guess we’ll let ’em get ahead of us, so we won’t have to take
so much dust,” decided Jerry. “We can wait here in the shade.”

He stopped the car, behind a screen of trees and bushes, not far from
the main road. A moment later a car shot past, and, as it did so, Ned
uttered a low exclamation.

[Illustration: A MOMENT LATER A CAR SHOT PAST.]

“Did you see that?” he asked Jerry.

“I sure did!” replied the tall lad.

“What was it?” inquired Bob, who was in the rear with the professor.

“Noddy Nixon!” answered Jerry. “He’s ahead of us now, and that’s
where we want him. He can’t follow us now. I guess, Noddy, you’ve
over-reached yourself,” and Jerry smiled grimly.




CHAPTER XII

DISAPPOINTMENT


“What do you suppose his game is?” asked Bob, as the auto containing
Noddy and two others shot around a curve in the main road, leaving a
cloud of dust behind.

“His game was to delay us long enough to catch up to us, I think,”
explained Jerry. “You see he lost time when he had to stop to fix his
tires, and he’s depending on us to show him the way to Snake Island,
since he failed to get any clews as he sneaked around. But he spoiled
his own chances. We’re behind him now, and he’ll have his own troubles
tracing us.”

“Are you going to let him get a long way in advance?” asked Ned.

“I think so. The more trouble we can give him to pick us up the
better--for us. I’m even going to get off the main road, if I can, and
take a less-used route.”

“The nerve of him charging us with assault and battery, just because
he happened to run over a few tacks!” exclaimed Bob, with an air of
virtuous indignation.

“Well, I suppose it did batter them up a bit,” remarked Jerry with a
smile. “The auto stopped rather suddenly, you remember.”

“It sure did,” agreed Ned. “But say, I wonder who that other chap is
with Noddy. I saw Bill Berry plainly enough, but I can’t imagine who
the other fellow is.”

“I had a glimpse of his face,” said Professor Snodgrass, looking up
from his note book. “I have seen him before, somewhere, but I can’t
recollect where. I never forget a face, but the association sometimes
escapes me. However, I may recall it later. I think--hold on, Jerry,
don’t move!” he exclaimed suddenly, for the tall lad had reached
forward to start the car. “There’s a fine, big yellow-backed toad at
the foot of that stump. I must get it. It isn’t as valuable as the
two-tailed one, but it is a very good specimen,” and the scientist
leaped out and was soon in possession of the toad, which he clapped
into a box.

“All ready now?” asked Jerry, with his hand on the gear lever.

“All ready--unless I see something else,” answered Uriah Snodgrass, and
the auto rolled slowly forward. Noddy had been given enough start so
that there was no danger of catching up to him unless he halted, and
he was not likely to do that, Jerry thought. At the first farmhouse
they stopped to inquire their way on some less frequented road, and,
learning it, they took another highway, which, while not so good to
travel on, made it less likely that they would meet or pass the bully.

For three days they traveled on, having fine weather on all but
one--the day after their “arrest.” Then it rained from morning until
night, and they progressed through water and mud, which cut down their
speed.

They were dry and fairly comfortable, however, for the closed car was
as snug as a bungalow, and they could cook and sleep inside. Then the
weather cleared, and, save for muddy roads, there was no discomfort.

“And we seem to have given Noddy the slip,” remarked Jerry, one day,
for they had neither seen nor heard anything of their enemy or his
companions. “We’re having fine luck.”

They had been traveling by auto over a week, and were getting close to
Denver, whence they would make the rest of the trip by airship, when
there came a turn in the good fortune that had, so far, accompanied
them.

They were going down a hill, one evening into a little town when the
foot brake unexpectedly broke, and they started off at a rapid pace.
Jerry, however, quickly threw in the emergency, and brought the car up
before any harm had resulted.

“Hum! This is a nice pickle!” exclaimed the tall lad. “Now we’ve got to
lay over until this is fixed.”

“Maybe we can have it fixed over night,” suggested Ned. “There’s a
combined blacksmith shop and garage just ahead,” and he pointed to it.
“If we pay extra we can have the man work all night on the brake, and
have it ready for us in the morning. There must be some sort of a hotel
here, where we can put up.”

“Fine!” cried Bob. “Then I won’t have to cook supper.”

“No, but you’ll eat it,” said Jerry. “But I guess Ned’s plan is a good
one.”

The blacksmith, who also did auto repair work, agreed, for an extra
fee, to put in the night fixing the brake, and the car being left at
his shop, the boys went to the only hotel in the village of Lafayette.

“Here’s the register,” spoke the landlord, handing over the book to the
boys and the professor. “Supper’ll soon be ready.”

“That’s good,” murmured Bob, and his chums laughed as they advanced
to sign their names. As Jerry put his down first, he uttered a cry of
surprise, and pointed to the signatures just above where theirs were to
go.

“Great Scott!” exclaimed Ned, looking over his chum’s shoulder. “Noddy
Nixon, and Bill Berry! They were here a couple of days ago!”

“And that must be the mysterious man who was with them,” added Jerry,
pointing to the signature of Dr. Kirk Belgrade.

“Kirk Belgrade! Kirk Belgrade!” murmured Professor Snodgrass, as he saw
the signature. “Where have I heard that name before? Where have I seen
that face?” He was in deep thought for a moment, and then he exclaimed:

“Oh, I have it! Belgrade. Yes, he was an instructor at my college a
few years ago. A smart man, but he did some underhand work, and he
was asked to resign. The last I heard of him he had started a sort
of mushroom correspondence school. Poor Belgrade! He was a brilliant
scholar, but he wanted to live by his wits, instead of working.”

“What can he be doing with Noddy?” asked Ned.

“Give it up,” murmured Bob. “I wonder when supper will be ready, and
what we’ll have to eat?”

Jerry was in deep thought.

“Professor Snodgrass,” he asked suddenly, “what branch of science did
this Dr. Belgrade teach in college?”

“Well, his specialty was electricity, and I remember when radium was
first discovered that he took a great interest in it. He even wrote
a paper on it, that was considered very good. Another thing, though
perhaps I should not speak of it. Our college had a small specimen
of radium, that one of the founders bought, and presented to the
laboratory. One day it disappeared, and it was the same day Belgrade
was asked to resign.

“There was talk that he might know something about it, but the faculty
considered that he had disgraced our school enough by something else he
did, so they did not press the radium matter. Belgrade sold examination
papers to some of the students. He was too brilliant, I’m afraid, for
his own good. And now to think he is in with Noddy Nixon!”

“Yes, and I believe I know what for!” exclaimed Jerry. “Noddy has taken
him along as an authority on radium, for Noddy wouldn’t know it from a
lump of clay. I begin to see things now. Fellows, we’ve got to be on
our guard. I wish Noddy was behind us instead of ahead of us!”

“Why, do you think he’ll get to Snake Island before we do?” asked Ned.

“He may,” replied Jerry grimly. “But he’ll have his work cut out to
beat us. I wish that brake hadn’t smashed. I’d like to be traveling
now.”

But there was no help for it. They had to wait until morning, and then
they took to the road again. For two days more they traveled on and
then, unexpectedly running out of gasolene one night they had to lay
over again for a half hour while the garage dealer supplied them. He
was out, too, but the tank wagon, with a supply was on its way, he said.

“Had another auto here, a while ago, and they took my last gallon,”
explained the garage attendant. “Fellow by the name of Blixen, or
something like that. Mighty fresh, too. He wanted to beat me down on my
price.”

“Wasn’t it Nixon, and not Blixen?” asked Jerry quickly.

“Well, that might have been it. I didn’t pay much attention. His auto
was badly in need of repairs, and I sort of asked if he didn’t want
me to fix it. He said he didn’t as they were only going on a little
farther.”

“A little farther,” remarked Jerry, for it was still some distance to
Denver, where Noddy was undoubtedly headed for. It was common knowledge
that the _Comet_, the airship of our heroes, was in Denver, for the
papers had contained many accounts of how it had broken records at the
big meet. Noddy could not have helped seeing them, and, naturally, he
would suspect that the motor boys were going to pick up their craft.

“Well, he said he and his crowd were going to take a train the rest of
the way,” went on the garage man. “They were going to Belmont station,
and take the train there. Here comes the gasolene. I’ll soon have your
tanks filled.”

“Fellows, we’ve got to do something!” exclaimed Jerry to his
companions, as the gasolene was being put in. “Noddy may get ahead of
us after all, and reach Denver first, if he takes a train.”

“What can we do?” asked Ned.

“Leave the auto, and take a train ourselves,” replied the tall lad.

“That’s it!” cried Bob. “Beat him at his own game!”

“Then we’ll do it,” decided Jerry. “How far is it to Belmont?” he asked
of the garage man, as he paid for the gasolene.

“About twenty miles.”

“Can you get a through train there for Denver, Colorado?”

“No, only locals stop there. But if you want to go to Denver, I can
tell you a better way. Why don’t you go to Meldon station. That’s only
ten miles farther on, and the Denver Limited stops there. You can make
it I guess,” and he looked at his watch. “She leaves there at nine
o’clock to-night, and it’s one of the few stops until she hits Denver.
You can only get locals at Belmont. The Limited beats them all to
pieces.”

“We’ll do it!” cried Jerry. “Come on, fellows! On to Meldon!”

“You’ve got to travel pretty fast,” the man warned them. “And the roads
aren’t very good--especially at night.”

“We can do it!” cried Jerry. “Meldon for ours, and we’ll beat Noddy on
his local!”

They were soon chugging down the road, in the gathering darkness. Bob
started to get supper, when Jerry stopped a little later to light the
powerful gas lamps, and then they went on at increased speed. Jerry
drove the car as fast as was safe, but their bad luck pursued them, for
they took the wrong turn at a point five miles from Meldon, and went
eight miles out of their way.

“Oh hang it!” cried Ned when they were set right by a truck farmer on a
load of produce. “Can we make it, Jerry?”

“I guess so,” and the tall lad threw the gasolene lever over a couple
more notches, and advanced the spark full.

The big car fairly bounded along, and it seemed as if they would get to
Meldon in time to catch the Limited. But they struck a stretch of sand
that held them back. However, Jerry drove on like mad, and soon the
lights of the station came into view.

“What are you going to do with the car?” cried Ned above the noise of
the motor.

“Leave it with the agent, and have him store it for us,” replied Jerry.
“I guess we’re in plenty of time, fellows,” he cried with a look at his
watch. “I thought it was later.”

He stopped the car with a screech of brakes at the station, and jumped
out.

“You fellows get out the baggage, and I’ll see to the tickets!” he
cried.

“Don’t leave any of my specimens!” cried the professor.

Jerry rushed up to the ticket agent behind his little barred window.

“Four tickets through to Denver!” exclaimed the tall lad. “On the
Limited! We’ve got quite some baggage and I’d like to leave our auto in
your care. We’ll pay you well.”

“The Limited pulled out of here about an hour ago,” said the man.
“You’re too late.”

“Too late? Why it isn’t nine o’clock yet!” and Jerry looked at his
watch.

“Guess you must be wrong, friend,” spoke the agent. “That clock is
standard time for this section of the country.”

Jerry looked at his watch and gave a low whistle.

“By Jove! She’s stopped,” he cried. “That’s it. I forgot to wind my
watch last night. Oh, what a chump!”

“Then we’ve missed the Limited,” said Ned.

“And Noddy Nixon is ahead of us,” added Bob.

“I’m afraid so,” admitted Jerry, a look of disappointment on his face.
“Has the local from Belmont gone?” he asked.

“Some time ago,” replied the agent. “She doesn’t stop here. The Limited
will have passed her by now, though.”

The boys said nothing. They did not know what to do. Their enemy was
ahead of them, and they were stranded. The professor was calmly looking
for bugs on the wall of the depot.




CHAPTER XIII

THE PROFESSOR’S LUNCH


“Well, what are we going to do?” asked Ned, after a long and rather
gloomy pause.

“I don’t know,” answered Jerry.

“Might as well go on in the auto,” suggested Bob. “We’ll get to Denver
to-morrow or next day, won’t we?”

“Oh, yes,” agreed the tall lad, “but Noddy will be a good deal ahead of
us, even if he is on a slow local. Hang it! Why didn’t I think to wind
my watch. I meant to, but we had so many things to think about that it
slipped my mind.”

“Well, there’s no use crying over spilled milk,” consoled Ned. “The
thing now is to decide what’s best to do. We might have looked at our
watches.”

The station agent had gone outside to attend to some of his duties,
leaving the boys and the professor alone in the depot. The scientist
seemed to have shaken all cares from his shoulders, as he walked about,
peering through his powerful spectacles for any stray specimens he
might be able to capture.

“Well, the only thing I see,” spoke Jerry, “is to take the Limited
to-morrow. We can stay here in town to-night. I guess we’ll go to a
hotel, for I want to stretch out in bed. Then I can arrange with some
garage man myself, about looking after the auto, instead of leaving it
for the station agent to do. But I certainly am sorry we missed that
train. We’d be ahead of Noddy by this time.”

“It wasn’t your fault any more than it was ours,” spoke Ned. “We ought
to have looked at our watches, too.”

Bob said nothing. He had strolled over to the far side of the depot
where there was a lunch counter. But the place was closed by glass
partitions, through which the food could be seen.

“Just look at Chunky,” said Ned in a low tone.

“Here, come away from there!” called Jerry in a loud voice to his chum.
“Hands off!”

Bob started.

“Can’t I look at it if I want to?” he asked. “I was seeing if they had
any nicer stuff than we did in the auto. If they did we might better
eat here instead of going to the hotel. Supper’ll be over there,
anyhow.”

“Come away, or you’ll get wireless indigestion,” advised Jerry. “Oh,
say, I wish I knew what to do,” he added impatiently.

“Guess the only thing is to go to bed and take the first train in the
morning,” advised Ned.

At that moment a young woman came into the depot. She walked with a
business-like air, and, advancing to the lunch room, opened the door
leading into it. Then she began taking down the glass windows that
closed it off. Bob, who had walked back toward his chums, started for
the counter again.

“Would you look at Chunky!” remarked Ned again. The stout lad was
eagerly looking over the collection of food, at the same time casting
stray glances at the young woman--she was little more than a girl.

“Are--are you going to serve lunch?” asked Bob.

“If anybody wants it--and I hope they do,” was her reply with a bright
smile, showing two rows of white, even teeth.

“I--I guess I do,” went on Bob, with a half-ashamed glance at his chums.

“Here, Bob! You come away from there!” ordered Ned in a loud voice.
“Don’t go to bothering the young lady. You mustn’t mind him, miss,”
went on the joking Ned. “He’s harmless. We’re taking him back to the
asylum. He just got out to-day--escaped. He thinks he’s always hungry.
Did he annoy you?” and with a half-fierce air Ned started for Bob.

“No--no, sir, he didn’t say anything out of the way,” replied the girl,
with a startled air.

“Well, he doesn’t mean anything,” explained Ned without a smile. “He
always imagines he’s hungry. That’s his peculiar form of insanity. You
wouldn’t believe it, but he just ate three roast chickens, not half an
hour ago, and my partner and I have had the hardest work to prevent him
breaking into your lunch room. Come over here, I say, or we’ll put the
strait-jacket on you!” ordered Ned to his fat chum.

For a moment Bob could only gasp, he was so surprised. Then he ripped
out:

“Well of all the nerve! I’ll fix you for that! Don’t you believe him!”
he went on. “I’m not crazy at all, I’m only hungry.”

“They all say that,” put in Jerry, carrying on the joke.

“Jerry Hopkins!” cried Bob. “I--I’ll----”

He did not say what he would do, for at that moment Professor
Snodgrass, who had been unsuccessful in his search for insects,
approached the lunch counter. The girl had started the coffee machine,
and an aromatic odor filled the waiting room.

“Ah, that smells good!” exclaimed the professor. “I believe I will have
a cup of coffee, and some sandwiches. Will you join me, boys, as long
as we have to wait?”

“Yes, do,” urged Bob, and he glanced appealingly at his chums. They did
not have the heart to plague him further, and with a laugh, at which
the girl seemed much relieved, Jerry clapped his stout companion on the
back, and linked arms with him.

“I believe I can take something myself,” spoke Ned. “Bob, you do
the ordering, and then we’ll go to the hotel, and try to forget our
troubles in sleep.”

They drew the tall stools up to the marble-topped lunch counter, and
the girl, evidently much relieved, and pleased at so many customers at
that hour, began setting out plates, spoons, knifes and other table
utensils in front of them.

“Chicken pies!” exclaimed Bob, rubbing his hands as he scanned the bill
of fare. “That sounds good. We’ll start with them.”

“I think I will take some fruit first,” said the professor. “Those
bananas look tempting,” and he motioned to some under a glass cover.

“Just help yourself to them, please,” invited the lunch girl. “I’ll put
the chicken pies in the oven to heat.”

Mr. Snodgrass lifted the cover off the bananas, and, as he did so he
uttered one of his usual cries of delight.

“There it is! There it is!” he exclaimed. “Oh, what a beauty, and such
a long tail! Oh, I must get that! Look out boys! Don’t let it get away.”

“Oh, what is it?” screamed the girl. “It’s a mouse, I know it is! Oh,
a mouse! A mouse! Father, come quickly!” and she leaped upon a small
stool, and thence to the broad shelf back of the lunch counter, while
Professor Snodgrass clapped a specimen box down over something amid the
bananas.




CHAPTER XIV

THE WRECK OF THE LIMITED


The door of the station opened, and the ticket agent rushed in. At a
glance he sized up the situation, the girl on the shelf, screaming, the
excited professor holding his hands over the bananas and three more or
less startled boys looking on.

“What’s the matter?” demanded the agent. “Mildred, has anything
happened? Have these people annoyed you?”

“Oh, no, father. It’s a mouse--a mouse in the bananas, but the
gentleman has captured it. But he acted so queer--he called out so,
and--and----” She stopped, on the verge of tears.

The agent took a step forward. His manner was rather threatening. Jerry
saw that it was time to explain at once.

“It’s all right,” he said in a quiet voice. “We did start to have a
little fun with our friend,” and he nodded at Bob, “but we had no
intention of annoying the young lady. We----”

“Oh, no, they didn’t annoy me, father,” the girl said earnestly. “It’s
only the mouse.”

“It isn’t a mouse at all!” broke in the professor. “It is a very rare
specimen of a long-tailed scorpion and----”

“Oh, a scorpion!” screamed the girl. “That’s worse! Oh, daddy, get a
poker, or something, and kill the horrid thing. I saw one once, all
covered with long hairs--a big spider--Ugh!”

“You are thinking of a tarantula, my dear young lady,” said the
professor calmly. “This is a scorpion, which is entirely different. But
this species is harmless, I do assure you. It wouldn’t bite a fly. I
am very fortunate to have captured it. I saw it on the bananas as soon
as I took off the cover, and I knew I must get it at once, or it would
escape. There, I have it safe,” and he slid a glass cover on the box,
and held out to view some sort of an insect, like a crayfish, with an
extra long tail, which was squirming about under the glass.

“There is the little beauty!” cried the professor with enthusiasm. “It
is worth at least ten dollars, and I am willing to pay that much to
whoever owns it,” and he glanced at the girl.

“Ugh! Take the horrid thing away!” she cried. “Are you sure there are
no more?”

“Not a one. I wish there were,” said the professor, looking carefully
among the bananas.

“Then I’ll come down,” went on the lunch girl, as she blushingly
descended. “I’m sorry I made a scene, but I thought it was a mouse.”

“That’s all right,” spoke Jerry gallantly. “It was our fault for
wanting lunch at this unearthly hour.”

“Oh, I always serve lunch at this time,” spoke the girl. “There’s quite
a crowd comes in from the Denver Express, and they’re ’most always
hungry. They’ll be here in about an hour, won’t they, father? Is the
train on time?”

“About,” replied the agent. “But I don’t exactly understand. Is
everything all right now?”

“I think so,” said Jerry, and he explained how he and Ned had started
to have fun with Bob, how they had made up their minds to have a lunch,
and how Professor Snodgrass had discovered the scorpion amid the
bananas. He told what a learned man the scientist was, always on the
lookout for specimens. Uriah Snodgrass was, by this time, painlessly
preserving his scorpion, and making notes about it, forgetting his
desire to eat. Not so Bob, however, who was eagerly waiting for the hot
chicken pies.

The excitement soon quieted down, and matters having been satisfactorily
explained the ticket agent became very friendly. He told the boys how he
had secured the privilege of running the lunch counter at the station,
and how his daughter, after the death of her mother, had taken charge of
it. By this time the meal was ready, and even the professor sat up and
ate.

“But I don’t see why you serve meals so late,” said Jerry, for it was
now after ten o’clock.

“Oh, we have to accommodate the passengers of the Denver Express,”
explained Miss Harrison, the lunch-girl. “At least they call it an
express, though it doesn’t go very fast.”

“And it comes from Denver?” asked Ned.

“No, it goes _to_ Denver,” she said.

“To Denver?” cried Jerry.

“Yes, it’s the last train out of here to-night. It gets to Denver
to-morrow noon, when it’s on time, and that isn’t very often. But there
are always a lot of travelers who like to stop off here for lunch. The
train waits ten minutes for a freight to clear. So I always come back
here after supper to serve a little lunch. I won’t have much left,
though, if you people come in often,” and with a mischievous look on
her face she glanced at Bob.

“A train to Denver!” cried Jerry. “That’s good news. I didn’t know
there were any more. I supposed when we lost the Limited we were
stranded here for the night. Boys, there’s a chance yet of beating
Noddy Nixon!” he cried.

“Good!” exclaimed Ned. “Then we’ll do it.”

“Sure--we--blub--ugh--will,” added Bob, his mouth full of chicken pie.

“Then finish up!” ordered Jerry. “We’ll arrange to have the auto left
here, and take our baggage on with us. In Denver to-morrow noon! That’s
fine!”

“If you’re on time,” put in the agent. “I meant to tell you about
that last train, but I had some freight matters to look after, and it
slipped my mind. She’ll be along here pretty soon. Better get your
tickets, and have your baggage checked if you’re going.”

“Yes, and we’ve got to attend to our auto,” said Jerry.

“And my specimens!” cried the professor. “I think I will express back
to the college those I have, and begin on a new lot. Oh, how lucky I am
to get the long-tailed scorpion!”

“Oh, don’t speak of it!” cried Miss Harrison.

While Ned ran the auto to the nearest garage and arranged to have it
cared for while the boys were in the West, Jerry and Bob bought the
tickets for Denver, and had the baggage checked. That is, Jerry did
most of the work, while Bob paid occasional visits to the lunch counter.

“Say, Bob,” asked Jerry at length. “Is it the girl or the grub that
you’re fondest of?”

“Ah--er--both!” stammered the fat lad. “Those chicken pies were fine!”

There was some little time to wait after all their preparations were
made, for the Express was late, as usual, and in the interim the boys
and the professor struck up quite an acquaintance with Mr. Harrison
and his daughter. Bob even insisted on buying a lot of sandwiches to
take along on the train, for he said he might get hungry in the night
journey to Denver.

“Well, it’s better than staying in town all night,” remarked Jerry,
when the agent informed him that their train would soon pull in. “But I
wish we had caught the Limited.”

“Well, maybe we’ll get ahead of Noddy yet,” suggested Ned.

The Express pulled in, and a score of hungry passengers besieged pretty
Miss Harrison. She waved good-bye to the boys and the professor, and
then began handing out food. Our friends got aboard, and settled
themselves comfortably for the trip to Denver. At last they were
underway again.

Through the night rushed the Express. Jerry and his friends had taken
sleeping berths, and they stretched out for a long rest, as they were
tired. There was some regret that Noddy was ahead of them, but this
could not be helped.

“What do you think Noddy will do when he gets to Denver; if he arrives
ahead of us?” asked Ned of Jerry, who had the berth below him.

“I don’t know. I hope he doesn’t find out where our airship is, and try
to damage that.”

“He wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, Noddy would do anything. Still, there’s no use in worrying until
we have to.”

“Say, will you boys get quiet and go to sleep?” begged a nervous man
across the aisle. “I’ve got to get up early.”

“Sorry we disturbed you,” spoke Jerry. “Good-night, Ned.”

“Good-night.”

“Thank goodness!” grunted the fussy man.

There was silence for a moment. Then, from the berth just forward of
Jerry, came an inquiry.

“Jerry, did you see what I did with that specimen of the long-tailed
scorpion?”

“Oh, mercy!” screamed a woman from somewhere in the car. “I hate bugs!”

“You expressed it back to the college with the other things, Professor
Snodgrass,” answered the tall lad.

“Oh, so I did. Good-night.”

“Good-night.”

“Thank goodness!” grunted the fussy man.

There was silence throughout the sleeping car. The train swung on
through the night, making occasional stops. Then came a long run.

Suddenly there was a grinding of brakes. The train was halted so
suddenly that many of the passengers slipped down to the ends of their
berths, all crumpled up. There was a series of shrill whistles.

“What’s the matter?” cried the fussy man. “Are you boys cutting up
again? Can’t you let a man sleep in peace? I’ve got to get up early!”

“Hello! Hello!” cried the professor. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” answered Jerry. “It isn’t us, anyhow,” he added, for
the benefit of the fussy man.

Just then a brakeman came hurrying through the car.

“What’s up?” asked Jerry, poking his head through the curtains of his
berth.

“Wreck!” was the brief reply. “The Denver Limited, right ahead of us,
has jumped the track. Our engineer stopped just in time, or we’d have
been into her.”

“The Limited wrecked!” gasped Jerry. “It’s a good thing, after all,
that we missed it!”

Then, from somewhere ahead, came screams and cries, and the crash of
axes on wood.




CHAPTER XV

THE EXPRESS AHEAD


“Come on, fellows, tumble out!”

Thus Jerry called to his two chums, but they needed no urging. The
curtains of their berths were violently shaken as the lads drew on
their clothes, and leaped out into the aisle.

“Has anything happened?” asked the professor, hardly awake, even after
his first question.

“Not to us,” answered Jerry. “Our luck seems to have turned. But there
must be a lot of people badly hurt on the Limited. Come on, we’ll do
all we can to help.”

Without stopping to dress fully, the three boys hurried out of the
car. The professor and some of the other men passengers followed, the
women remaining in frightened and tearful groups, discussing what had
happened.

Jerry saw a brakeman hurrying from the sleeping car with several tools
under his arm--an axe, a saw and a crowbar.

“Are passengers imprisoned in the wreck?” asked the tall lad.

“Some of ’em,” was the quick response. “We need all the help we can
get. There weren’t many on the Limited, and what few there are can’t do
anything. It’s a good thing her tail lights were burning, or we’d have
smashed into her. Come along, boys.”

“Say, we’re right in the woods,” remarked Ned as he stumbled along the
track in the darkness. Ahead of them they could see a glow of flames,
reflected from the dark trees.

“It’s on fire!” cried Bob.

“That’s why we need all the help we can get to chop the people out!”
cried the brakeman. “Here, you boys, take those tools, and run ahead
with ’em. I’ll get more from some of the other cars.”

Jerry caught up a saw, Ned the iron bar and Bob the axe.

“Isn’t there anything for me?” demanded the professor, who was anxious
to help.

“You’ll find more tools up ahead!” shouted the brakeman, with a wave of
his hand toward the blazing wreck. “Hurry!”

The screams and cries of the injured could be heard more plainly now,
and the fire was burning brighter. The three boys hastened their pace,
and Jerry headed for one car, around which most of the rescuers were
grouped.

“Here’s work for us, fellows!” he cried.

“That’s right!” shouted a brakeman. “Get busy!”

The motor boys could see the havoc wrought by the wreck. The engine lay
on its side, down a slight embankment, and one car--a combined mail and
express coach--had followed. The other cars were on the track, with the
exception of one, which had fallen on its side, and was partly smashed.
It was from this coach that the cries were proceeding, but fortunately
that was not the car that was burning. The one on fire was an express
car.

“There are people imprisoned in this car!” cried the conductor of the
train, who was directing operations. “Chop and saw away at the windows,
so we can get ’em out! Lively now, everybody!”

“But the fire!” cried a man, pointing to the express car. “Hadn’t we
better try to put that out?”

“Can’t be done,” replied the conductor briefly. “We have no water.”

“But the poor souls----” cried the man.

“None in there,” was the quick answer. “The express messenger got out,
and the stuff will have to burn. All the people in danger are in this
car, and we’ve got to get ’em out. There’s no danger from the fire. It
will have to burn out. Lively now!”

The boys fell to with a will, as did the other passengers from the
wrecked Limited and from the Express. Several of the unfortunates had
already been rescued, and were being laid on the cushioned car seats,
or carried back to the rear train.

“Here’s someone under this window!” cried Jerry, as in the darkness,
illuminated by the glow from the fire, he saw a white hand tapping on
the glass, that had, through some strange agency, not broken.

“Chop ’em out!” cried Bob, raising his axe.

“Go easy there!” yelled Jerry. “You’ll do more harm than good!” The
tall lad tapped on the pane, and a face was thrust close to it.

“Protect yourself from the flying glass,” ordered Jerry. “We’re going
to break it, and pull you out. Cover yourself up.”

A few taps with the axe served to shatter the pane, after Jerry had
noticed that the dim figure wrapped itself in a blanket, for this car
was a sleeper. Soon the hole was big enough to haul out a fairly large
person, and Jerry and Ned carefully scraped away the jagged points of
glass.

“Come on now!” cried Jerry, thrusting his hands down into the opening.
“We’ll lift you out!”

He caught hold of the wrist of someone, and Ned the other hand. They
lifted, and there came into view a little girl, with light, curly hair.
She did not seem to have a scratch on her, but she was crying from
fright. As soon as Jerry had her in his arms she screamed out:

“Oh, where is mamma--and papa?”

A man came bursting through the crowd at the sound of the child’s voice.

“Oh, Gladys! Thank the dear Lord!” he cried, fairly snatching her from
Jerry. “You are saved! I thought you were gone! Your mamma is safe.
Come. Oh, boys, I can’t thank you enough! You have saved my little
daughter.”

“And the glass didn’t cut me!” cried Gladys. “I was in a blanket. But,
papa, I can’t go. Annabell is in there.”

“What, another little girl!” cried Jerry. “Come on, boys. More work!”

“Annabell is my doll!” explained Gladys, smiling now in her father’s
arms. “But I want her. I love her.”

Jerry looked in through the broken window. In a pile of blankets, on
what had been a berth, he saw what seemed to be a tousled head of hair.
Reaching in his arm he pulled out a big doll, minus one leg.

“Oh, poor Annabell is hurt!” cried Gladys. “Oh, papa!”

“Never mind, you shall have a dozen dolls. Boys, I can’t begin to
thank you! Montrose is my name, James Montrose, of Denver. I’ll see you
again. I want your names. Now I must take Gladys to her mother. Mrs.
Montrose is slightly injured. Oh, what a terrible wreck!”

He hurried away, and Jerry and his chums looked for more work to do.
But, so well had the rescue operations been conducted that, as far as
could be learned, not another soul remained in the wrecked sleeper.
From the other cars the passengers had hastened themselves, or been
helped, after the crash, bruises and cuts being their worst injuries.

And, strange as it may seem, no one was killed outright, though several
were grievously hurt. The wounded had been carried back to the stalled
Express, and made as comfortable as possible. Fortunately, there was a
doctor aboard, and a supply of bandages and medicine. The conductor of
the wrecked Limited checked over his passenger list, and reported no
one missing.

“I think everyone is out now, gentlemen,” he said to Jerry and his
chums, and the little group of rescuers.

“Then I suppose we must wait here until the wrecking crew comes,” said
one man.

“No,” answered the conductor, “we will go back, and get aboard the
Express, just behind us. There is a switch, not far away, and we can
go around the wreck, and proceed to Denver, though we’ll stop at the
nearest hospital with the worst wounded.”

“On to Denver!” exclaimed Jerry. “Then we’ll beat the Limited after
all. We’re going on ahead.”

“Yes, but Noddy is still in front of us,” spoke Ned in a low voice.
“We’ll never catch up to him.”

“It can’t be helped,” remarked Bob. “Say, but we run into excitement
and adventures when we least expect it.”

“That’s better than running into a wreck,” replied Jerry. “Hello,
here’s someone evidently forgotten!”

The boys and Professor Snodgrass were walking back toward the Express,
and were somewhat by themselves, when Jerry noticed the figure of a man
lying on a pile of seat cushions on the railroad embankment.

“Let’s carry him back to the doctor!” cried Ned, and he advanced to
take hold of one corner of the seat, which was like an improvised
stretcher. The man on it never moved.

“We four can carry it nicely,” said Jerry. “Catch hold here, Professor.”

Mr. Snodgrass used one hand to reach for the corner of the
plush-covered seat. His left he held clenched, some distance away from
his body. As might have been expected, with only one hand, he could
not lift his corner.

“What’s the matter?” asked Ned. “Is your hand hurt, Mr. Snodgrass?”

“Hand hurt? No. Why?”

“You’re not using it. Why do you hold it that funny way?”

“Funny way? I--er--bless my soul! It’s my collar button. I’ve been
holding my collar button all this while. I started to put it in my
shirt when I heard the call for help, and I guess I was so excited and
absent-minded that I’ve been holding it ever since. I wondered why I
couldn’t do more work, and all the while it was because I only used one
hand. The other held the collar button. How stupid!”

He thrust the button into his pocket, while the boys could hardly
restrain a smile. Then, with the professor’s two-handed aid, the
sufferer on the seat was carried to the rear. He had fainted from a
comparatively slight injury and was soon being cared for.

A little later, with all the wounded from the Limited on board, and all
the other passengers squeezed in somehow, the Express backed up, went
around the wreck by means of a switch, and headed for Denver.

The boys were beating the Limited, which they had missed, but they
would reach the Western city considerably in the rear of Noddy Nixon
for all that, since the Limited could not now pass the local train on
which the bully and his cronies were riding.

“Well, it can’t be helped,” remarked Jerry, as he saw Mr. Montrose,
whose little daughter they had rescued, caring for his wife. Gladys was
happy with her injured doll.




CHAPTER XVI

THE AIRSHIP GONE


Stopping in the early dawn at a good-sized city, the wounded from the
Express were taken to a hospital for treatment. Though Mrs. Montrose
was not seriously hurt her husband decided that she also had better
stop off, instead of making the trip to Denver. Accordingly, after
having bidden the boys good-bye, giving them his address in the Western
city, and telling them he expected to see them there, Mr. Montrose got
off the train.

“And I’m much obliged to you, too,” said little Gladys. “So Annabell
would be, if she could talk, and I guess she doesn’t mind her leg being
off--that is, not very much, for she’s been asleep most of the time,
and when you sleep you don’t feel any pain.”

“I guess that’s right,” agreed Jerry with a smile.

The Express went on, but it was much behind time, and had to proceed
necessarily slower each hour, on account of the wreck, for all the
railroad schedules were set awry.

“But we’ll get there some time,” observed Jerry, though naturally he
was nervous about what Noddy might do to get to Snake Island ahead of
them.

Noon saw our friends still quite a distance away from Denver, and they
fretted over the delay. They ate dinner at a way-station lunch counter,
and, though Professor Snodgrass looked eagerly among the bananas for
more rare specimens, he found none.

“But if I get my two-tailed toad I’ll not want anything else,” he said,
as they got underway again.

It was late that afternoon, when they reached Denver, and went at once
to a hotel, for a good bath and a change of clothing, for they had
brought their big valises with them on the train.

“And now for a good hot meal!” cried Bob, as, much refreshed the chums
sat together in the hotel parlor. “Railroad lunches are all right, even
when a pretty girl serves ’em, but I want to sit down to a table where
I can eat as long as I like.”

“And as much,” added Jerry. “But I guess we’ll have to postpone our
eating for a while, Bob,” and the tall lad winked at Ned.

“Postpone it!” cried the fat youth. “Why?”

“Well, we ought to go out to Buffalo Park, and look after our
airship,” went on Jerry. The _Comet_, so Mr. Glassford had written
them, was left at one of the hangars in Buffalo Park, where the aero
meet had been held. The craft had not been taken apart for shipment
back east, but had, in accordance with the instructions of the motor
boys, been kept in readiness for a quick flight. A watchman, named
Boise, had been left in charge, and Mr. Glassford had told him that
Jerry and his chums would soon be on hand to claim their property.

“Go to Buffalo Park!” exclaimed Bob blankly. “Why, that’s about seven
miles out. It will take more than two hours to go there and back, and
look at the _Comet_. That will make supper awfully late. I guess she’s
all right. Can’t we wait until to-morrow, Jerry?”

“Well, that’s what I was going to propose,” remarked the tall lad,
after what to Bob was a painful pause. “I guess we’re all too tired to
chase out there, and our airship will probably be all right. I tried to
see if I could get Boise on the ’phone, but I couldn’t.”

“We’ll go out there the first thing in the morning!” decided Bob, with
a look of relief on his face. “Now, I’m going to the dining-room, and
look at the bill of fare.”

“Don’t eat it,” advised Ned with a laugh.

“No danger. I’m not going to spoil my appetite,” declared the fat one.
“I never had a better.”

“Then don’t say anything about it, or they’ll raise the rate on us,”
cautioned Jerry. “Jove, but I’m tired!” and he stretched out in an easy
chair, while Ned took another, and Bob strolled toward the dining-room,
to find out how soon supper would be served.

“And we didn’t hear anything of Noddy,” remarked Ned, after a pause.

“Nor see anything,” added Jerry. “I inquired at the station, and they
told me the local, which Noddy and the others must have taken, got in
early this morning. He was several hours ahead of us if he was on that,
and he probably was.”

Bright and early the next morning they were on their way to Buffalo
Park. The place of the aero meet was deserted, and the hangars looked
gloomy in the big expanse of open field.

“Wonder which is ours?” ventured Ned, as he and his chums alighted from
the trolley car.

“There it is,” remarked Jerry, pointing to a big shed with the word
“COMET” in large letters across the big doors.

“And now for a good flight!” cried Bob. “No more train wrecks for
ours. Off for Snake Island and the radium!”

“And my two-tailed toad,” added Professor Snodgrass, looking carefully
on the ground as he advanced for a possible rare specimen.

The boys found the hangar, where their craft was housed, closed and
locked. They pounded on the doors, and Jerry remarked:

“This is odd.”

“Why?” asked Bob.

“Because Mr. Glassford said he had instructed Boise to just live out
here until we came--not to go away at all. And yet he isn’t here.”

“Maybe he didn’t expect us, and has gone to town for supplies,”
suggested Ned.

“In that case, as Mr. Glassford wrote, he was to have a friend on
guard. Yet no one seems to be here.”

“Maybe he’s asleep,” ventured Bob.

Jerry kicked on the door, with enough force to awaken the soundest
sleeper, but there was no response from inside. Suddenly, from the
fields back of the boys came a hail.

“Hey! What are you fellows doing at that hangar? Get away!”

A man came running toward them. He seemed quite angry.

“Get away!” he ordered.

“Who are you?” asked Jerry, a sudden fear coming into his heart.

“I’m the watchman--Boise is my name--but I’m on my way to Denver now.”

“Why?” faltered Ned.

“Because there’s nothing more here to watch. My job is ended. But who
are you fellows, anyhow; and what do you want here?”

“We’re the owners of the _Comet_,” replied Jerry, “and we came for our
airship, that Mr. Glassford left with you.”

“The--the owners!” gasped Mr. Boise. “Are you the motor boys?”

“We are!” cried Ned. “Where is the _Comet_?”

“It’s gone--gone!” faltered the watchman.

“Gone; where?” Jerry wanted to know.

“I delivered it to a young fellow named Noddy Nixon last night,”
answered Mr. Boise. “He had a letter from Mr. Glassford, and one
signed Jerry Hopkins, saying he had been sent to bring the airship to
you--said you couldn’t get this far, as there was a wreck.”

“Noddy--Nixon--has--our--airship!” gasped Jerry. “Fellows, he got ahead
of us after all!”




CHAPTER XVII

AN UNEXPECTED OFFER


Blank amazement, despair, fear and anger showed on the faces of the
motor boys, as they looked at one another and then at the watchman,
Boise. The latter, no less than our heroes, was startled. He saw at
once that something was wrong.

“And you let the airship go--our _Comet_?” asked Jerry, as if he could
not believe the words.

“I did. I thought it was all right. This Noddy Nixon said he was a
friend of yours, and he had two letters. They were orders on me to give
up the airship, and, as I was expecting you any day, I thought it was
the thing to do. Here are the orders now,” and he pulled two pieces of
paper from his pocket.

“Let’s see ’em!” exclaimed Jerry eagerly.

Bob and Ned looked over his shoulder as the tall lad read. Clearly
enough the letters purported to be orders on Boise for the delivery
of the _Comet_. But it needed only a glance to show that they were
forgeries.

“I never signed that letter!” cried Jerry wrathfully. “I might have
known Noddy would be up to some trick like this.”

“And that isn’t Mr. Glassford’s writing, either,” added Ned. “I have
a letter from him in my pocket, explaining where he would leave the
_Comet_ for us,” and he pulled out the epistle, comparing it with the
one Boise had handed over. Though there was some similarity between
the two signatures, the boys could easily see that the order for
the airship had been forged. There was no question as to the letter
purporting to be signed by Jerry. That signature was not a bit like his.

“And yet these don’t look as if Noddy wrote them,” spoke Jerry, as he
scanned the forged documents. “He couldn’t write as firm a hand as
this.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised but what that former college teacher did it,”
suggested Professor Snodgrass. “He has probably added forgery to his
other accomplishments. Let me take a look. I don’t know his writing,
but I can tell an educated hand.”

The professor looked carefully at the two documents, and said it was
very evident that Dr. Belgrade had written them.

“It is too finished a hand to have been penned by a lad like Noddy
Nixon,” declared Uriah Snodgrass. “Probably Noddy did not feel equal
to that part of the work, and got his crony to attempt it.”

“I believe you’re right,” agreed Jerry. “But what did they do with the
airship, Mr. Boise?”

“Took her away, and right from in front of my face. Oh, I was a ninny
to stand there and see ’em do it!”

“It wasn’t your fault,” declared Jerry. “Almost anyone would have given
up the craft, after receiving two such orders as these. But where did
they go?”

“That I can’t say. They seemed in very much of a hurry, and, after I
had unlocked the big doors, and opened ’em, they wheeled the _Comet_
out, and started her up. She ran beautifully, too, for Mr. Glassford
had told me to keep her ready for a quick flight, and I did. There was
plenty of gasolene in the tanks, and she was fit for a big journey.”

“Were there three of them?” asked Bob.

“Yes, the young fellow, who the others called Noddy, a rough sort of a
chap, and a slick-looking man.”

“Bill Berry and Dr. Belgrade, all right,” commented Ned.

“Did you hear them say where they were going?” asked Jerry.

“No, they didn’t talk much. Just a few words. They seemed to know how
to work the machinery, and I never had a suspicion that anything was
wrong. I did ask ’em where they expected to meet you boys, and Noddy
said somewhere outside of Denver.”

“I guess that part was the only true thing he said,” remarked Jerry
grimly. “And when we do meet him, outside of Denver, or anywhere else,
well----”

He did not finish, but there was a stern look on his face.

“Which way did they head, as they started off?” asked Ned, seeking for
possible clews.

“I couldn’t say,” replied Boise. “I watched ’em until they got high in
the air, and then they got beyond my sight. I haven’t very good eyes,
so I couldn’t say where they did head for.”

“Did they take any provisions along?” Bob wanted to know, and this time
his chums did not laugh at him, for they realized the wisdom of his
question.

“None that I saw,” replied the watchman. “And there were none in the
airship.”

“Then they can’t go very far!” cried Bob. “Fellows, we’ve got to get
right after ’em. They’ll have to come down to feed, and that will be
our chance.”

“But how can we get after ’em?” asked Jerry. “On foot? Our airship is
gone, and our auto is hundreds of miles away. How are we going to do
it?”

“That’s so,” agreed Bob, much downcast.

“An airship is what we need,” commented Ned, “and that’s out of the
question.”

“There were plenty here a while ago,” remarked the watchman, “but
they’ve been taken away since the meet. Oh, I’m so sorry I let those
fellows fool me!”

“You couldn’t help it,” declared Jerry kindly. “Now it’s up to us to
get busy, and make Noddy pay for the trouble he has caused us. Come on,
boys. We’ll get back to the hotel, and talk it over. Something has got
to be done.”

“Yes,” agreed Professor Snodgrass, “we must get to Snake Island before
they do, or they may get the only two-tailed toad that is there.”

“And, naturally, they’ll get all the radium,” spoke Ned.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything more for you,” said Boise. “I just
came out this morning, after closing the hangar up last night, to get a
few things I’d left behind. My work here is done, and I’m looking for a
new job. If I could help you I would.”

“I’m afraid you can’t,” replied Jerry, and, parting from Boise, they
started for the trolley that would take them back to their hotel. They
were sad and discouraged. After all their hard work and preparations,
to be thus beaten by Noddy and his plotters! It was the worst of bad
luck.

“Gentleman here to see you,” remarked the hotel clerk when they went
up to the desk to get the keys to their adjoining rooms. “He’s in the
reading-room now, I think. Said he’d wait a little while for you.”

“Who is he?” asked Ned eagerly.

“He didn’t leave his name. Front!” he called to one of the bell boys,
“tell that gentleman with the tall hat, in the reading-room, that the
young gentlemen he was asking for have come in now.”

“Yes, sir!” exclaimed the lad whose coat was a mass of buttons.

“We’ll go in the reading-room, and talk to him,” suggested Jerry,
wondering who their visitor could be. As the three lads entered the
apartment they saw a familiar figure at the far end.

“Mr. Montrose!” exclaimed Ned, as he recognized the father of little
Gladys, whom they had rescued from the wreck.

“Oh, boys! I’m glad to see you!” cried Mr. Montrose. “I’ve been
inquiring at half the hotels in Denver for you. I came on with my wife
a while ago. She is much better, and as soon as I got home with her she
insisted that I look you up. Gladys wants to see you also, and, as I
forgot in the excitement to ask what hotel you were going to stop at,
though I heard you say you were coming to this city, and as I mislaid
your cards, the only way I had to find you was to describe you to the
different hotel clerks. But at last I found you. I’m so glad! I want
you to come out to my house at once.”

Then, as if struck by something in the lads’ faces the gentleman asked:

“Why, what is the matter? Has anything happened?”

“Yes, there has!” exclaimed Bob impulsively. “Our airship has been
taken by Noddy Nixon,” and then, in a few brief words the boys told of
what had happened.

“And so he got ahead of you, after all,” commented Mr. Montrose, “and
flew away in your airship?”

“Yes, and we want to chase him, for he can’t get very far, but we
haven’t anything to do it in,” remarked Ned.

“We need another airship,” added Jerry.

“Another airship!” exclaimed Mr. Montrose. “How big a one? Would a
biplane, carrying three, answer?”

“Would it?” cried Jerry. “It certainly would! Even if we couldn’t take
any provisions along for Chunky. But where could we get one on such
short notice?”

“From me!” suddenly exclaimed Mr. Montrose. “Boys, I’ve been wondering
how I could reward you for what you did for me--saving my daughter. I
knew it would have to be something out of the ordinary. And this gives
me just the chance I want. I’ll provide you with an aeroplane, so you
can chase after Noddy Nixon!”

“But we need it right away!” cried Jerry. “There isn’t time to have one
made.”

“Oh, that’s all right. I have one that’s in perfect order, if you can
believe the man who made it. And it has flown recently, so it ought to
go now. You can start this afternoon, I guess. Come and sit down, and
I’ll tell you all about it,” and Mr. Montrose led the boys toward a
quiet corner of the reading-room.




CHAPTER XVIII

ON THE TRAIL


“How in the world does it happen that you have an airship, just when
one is most needed?” asked Jerry, as he and his chums seated themselves
near Mr. Montrose.

“I admit it does sound like a fairy story,” said that gentleman with a
smile, “but I assure you it is all plain facts. I am not an aviator,
nor am I a dealer in airships. I’m a banker here in Denver. The quiet
life for mine. I’d no more think of going up in an airship than I would
of putting on a diver’s outfit, and going to the bottom of the sea. And
yet I own what I am told is one of the best biplanes made. You see, it
was this way:

“When we had this meet, for aeroplanes and balloons out in Buffalo
Park, there were a number of cranks, as there always are at an affair
of that kind.

“Some of them came to me, with plans for airships that I could easily
see would never fly. Others seemed to have good ideas. They all wanted
money to build their craft.

“There was one young fellow who seemed to have a plan for a good sort
of airship, and I took quite a notion to him. I got an engineer to look
over the drawings, and, on his report, I advanced the money for the
young man to build his biplane. It was a success from the start, and he
made several preliminary flights, and won some prizes in the meet.

“Then he met with an accident, and not, as you might suppose, while up
in the air. He was coming to the park one day to give an exhibition
flight, when he was struck by a trolley car, and so badly injured that
he died in a few days. That left me with a first-class airship on my
hands, for I took it away from the grounds, and had it stored in my
barn.

“That’s how it happens that I have a biplane in good working order,
and if it is of any service to you boys, you are welcome to her. I’d
do anything for you, after what you did for me and I hope that you can
make use of this craft.”

“It is very kind of you to offer it to us,” spoke Jerry, “and I think
it will be just the thing we need. Of course we don’t know anything
about the engine, or how the biplane will sail, nor how fast. But I’m
sure it will help us in our hunt for Noddy Nixon.”

“Then suppose you come out to my place and look her over,” suggested
Mr. Montrose. “I have my auto out in front, and it won’t take long to
get to my house. Besides, I want you boys to pay me a visit, anyhow.
Get your baggage from the hotel, and be my guests.”

The boys could not refuse. They paid their bill at the hotel, and had
their baggage taken to Mr. Montrose’s fine big house. As soon as the
professor arrived there, he hurried out to a fish pond, with a small
net, and was not seen again until night, when he came in with more
specimens.

As for the boys, their first visit was to the barn where the airship
was stored. Mr. Montrose went with them, and he smiled in appreciation
at what the three chums said.

For perhaps two minutes they examined it carefully, Jerry paying
particular attention to the engine. Then Bob burst out with:

“Well, it’s not so bad. I see a place where we can fasten a box on to
carry some lunch.”

“Trust Chunky for that,” murmured Ned.

“The engine is powerful,” was Jerry’s opinion, “and the propellers are
well made. She has speed all right.”

“And she’ll carry the three of us,” added Ned. “Of course we’ll have to
come down after every trip of about a hundred miles, for she doesn’t
carry gasolene for much more than that. But we can chase Noddy in
‘century’ stretches, and gasolene is easy to get around here. I say,
let’s take her, and have a try.”

“We can stop for lunch anywhere if we happen to run short,” proposed
Bob.

“If you say lunch again, I’ll make you eat an onion!” cried Jerry,
knowing how Bob hated them.

“Do you think it will do?” asked Mr. Montrose, full of interest in the
project of the motor boys.

“Do? It’s just fine!” cried Ned. “We can’t thank you enough.”

“It is I who am in your debt,” spoke the banker. “You are welcome to
the machine. I don’t know anything about them, and you may be taking a
big risk to run it, but I hope not.”

“Oh, she’ll run all right,” answered Jerry, looking over the craft with
a critical eye. “We’ll give it a try-out now.”

The professor being engaged in capturing specimens, the boys had the
test to themselves. They wheeled the aeroplane out in a big field,
and, after trying the engine, and finding that it worked almost to
perfection, got ready for a flight. Mr. Montrose and his wife, who
could sit up in an easy chair, and Gladys, with her wounded doll,
watched the lads from a safe distance.

“Of course this isn’t like our _Comet_,” said Jerry to his chums.
“It’s just a straight aeroplane, and if the engine stops we’ve got to
volplane down. But I think she’ll enable us to get on Noddy’s trail.
We’ll go up for a short flight, and then if she’s all right, we’ll
start out, and go as far as we can before dark.”

“Which way?” asked Bob.

“Toward the Grand Canyon,” answered Jerry. “That’s where Noddy and his
crew will head for.”

“Get busy then!” cried Ned. “We’re on Noddy’s trail once more!”

Our motor boys were too experienced hands with all forms of airships
to have much trouble with the fine one the unfortunate young man had
perfected. It worked perfectly, and carried the three with ease. Of
course it was nothing like the _Comet_, and could remain aloft but a
comparatively short time. But it was a great help in an emergency.

The lads soared upward, circled around over Mr. Montrose’s house, and
then started straight away. They covered several miles and returned.

“Now for the chase!” cried Jerry grimly, as they made a descent.

“Oh, what wonderful boys!” cried Mrs. Montrose. “You are so daring!”

“No danger at all,” Ned assured her.

It did not take them long to pack a few articles of clothing, a light
lunch and a few other necessaries on the aeroplane, which they named
the _Chaser_. They planned to travel as far as they could before dark,
and then stop at some hotel or farmhouse over night. In the morning
they would renew the pursuit of Noddy. Professor Snodgrass was to
remain at the Montrose home, seeking specimens, and the boys promised
to call back for him when they had succeeded in their quest, or had
proved to their own satisfaction that they could not catch Noddy.

“But we’ll get him!” cried Ned, as he and his companions took their
places in the _Chaser_.

“Come back to Annabell and me!” cried Gladys after them.

“We will,” promised Bob.

There was the clattering racket of the explosions in the cylinders.
The big propellers whizzed around with terrific force. The biplane
trembled, and then began to roll slowly across the smooth lawn on her
bicycle wheels.

“Good luck!” cried Mr. Montrose.

His wife and daughter waved their hands to the motor boys.

A moment later the stanch little machine rose into the air, and soared
away over the treetops on the quest after the unprincipled bully who
had taken away the _Comet_.

“Now we’re on his trail!” cried Bob, as he looked to see that the
lunch basket was securely fastened.

“I hope we catch him soon,” murmured Jerry, as he grasped the
steering-wheel with a firmer grip, and peered ahead for a glimpse of
their own beloved craft.




CHAPTER XIX

A DESPERATE RACE


From Denver to that part of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona
where Snake Island might be located, the distance is about five hundred
miles. Jerry had calculated this before starting, and he had told his
chums that there was a chance of catching Noddy before the latter could
reach the great gash in the earth that represented the canyon.

“For I don’t believe Noddy is going to be very expert in managing our
_Comet_,” commented the tall lad. “He may know how to run an ordinary
aeroplane, but when he gets mixed up with our dirigible balloon he’ll
come a cropper, sooner or later.”

“Make it later,” advised Bob. “We don’t want him smashing our airship
with any croppers.”

“Oh, I don’t know that he’ll take a tumble,” went on Jerry, “only he
won’t know how to run her so as to get the best speed out of her. That
means that he’ll be longer than he thinks he’ll be in getting to the
canyon, and we’ll have a chance to catch up to him, even if he has a
good start.”

“I wonder what he’ll do, if he does get to the canyon?” asked Ned, as,
in response to a sign from Jerry, he adjusted the carburetor so as to
give the engine a richer mixture.

“Why, he’ll hover over it, the same as we would, I suppose,” replied
the tall lad, “and try to pick out Snake Island. He doesn’t know
exactly where it is, any more than we do, but I guess there aren’t many
islands in that part of the river, and so he won’t have much trouble
picking it out. The only thing for us to do is to get there first.”

“Can we do it with this machine?” asked Ned.

“Well, it’s a pretty good craft,” replied Jerry, as he turned on more
power, and did various evolutions in the air to ascertain how the
_Chaser_ responded to the helm. “Of course she isn’t as speedy as the
_Comet_, but she might be, with Noddy tinkering with our machinery, and
not getting the best out of it. We’ve got to take our chance.”

The _Chaser_ was indeed a fine craft of her class, and soon the motor
boys were high in the air, sailing in an almost direct south-western
direction from Denver, to reach the Colorado.

For several miles they proceeded in a straight line, at a height of
about a mile, as this gave them a good view ahead, unobstructed by any
clouds which would have hampered them had they gone higher. But the
clear air held not a speck that might be taken for the missing _Comet_.
The boys strained their eyes in vain. They were making good time, and
the wind cut into their faces, for there was no protection as in the
comfortable cabin of their own craft.

“Don’t you think you might slow up a bit?” suggested Bob after a while.

“Why?” inquired Jerry.

“Because it’s ’most lunch time, and--er--well, you know you can hardly
breathe if you open your mouth going at this speed, and if we try to
eat any sandwiches we may get choked. So if you slowed up----”

“All right, Chunky, enough said!” cried Ned. “Slow up, Jerry, I’m
hungry too.”

Accordingly the _Chaser_ was brought down to a speed that just kept her
afloat, and Bob opened the lunch basket. It was no novelty for the boys
to dine while high in the air, but it was rather more inconvenient in
an open aeroplane than in the _Comet_. Still they managed.

They spent the afternoon going straight on, or circling about at times
to cover a wider area, but with all their looking, and peering through
powerful binoculars, they had no glimpse of the craft they sought. It
was beginning to get dusk, and Jerry suggested that they had better go
down, and seek a resting place for the night.

“There’s no use flying after dark,” he said, “and we can pick out a
better landing place if we do it now, than if we wait until later.”

They were flying over a rather lonesome section of the country just
then, and no houses were in sight. But, a little later, Jerry picked
out a small cabin in the midst of a clearing in the woods, and said:

“I guess this will do as well as anything. It doesn’t look very big,
but we can sleep out-doors if we have to.”

Jerry tilted the deflecting rudder, and the craft gracefully swooped
down toward the earth. While yet a little distance from the ground the
boys were surprised to see a tall, lank man, followed by a woman and
several children, rush from the cabin, and take refuge behind a pile
of wood. Then, as the airship came to a stop, after running across the
ground on the bicycle wheels, a rifle was poked over the top of the
logs, held unwaveringly on the three lads, while a voice drawled out:

“Hold on, strangers! I may not be able to manage one of them consarned
flippity-flop shebangs, but I’m a tolerable good shot with this gun,
and she goes off on a hair trigger. So if you don’t want to be made
into coffee strainers, git!”

“Why, what’s the matter?” asked Jerry. “We don’t mean anything, we only
want----”

“Ye can’t fool me!” cried the voice of the man who held the gun. As for
himself he was hidden by the wood. “Ye can’t come none of them games on
me. Keep hid, ’Mandy, an’ don’t let the children stick their heads up.
I’ll drive these pirates off.”

“What do you take us for?” asked Jerry, in surprise.

“Kidnappers--that’s what! I’ve read about ye in the papers. Kidnappers,
an’ bomb throwers, that’s what ye be. They had a exhibition over in
Denver, an’ the papers told how they dropped bombs from them airships,
an’ how they took children up in ’em. Ye can’t do that here. I’ve got
nine, an’ I want every one. Keep hid, ’Mandy.”

“I guess you’re mistaken,” spoke Jerry with a laugh, which was a bit
forced on account of the gun that seemed pointed directly at him.
“We are neither bomb throwers nor kidnappers. I don’t know how the
papers could have said that anything like that was done at the Denver
exhibition. Of course there may have been some bomb-dropping contests,
but only harmless chalk balls were used, and, as for children, I never
heard of any being taken up in an aeroplane.”

“Ye know you didn’t read it yourse’f, pap,” interposed a woman’s voice
from behind the wood pile.

“Well, Gabe Ralston were tellin’ me about it, an’ I reckon he can
read,” declared the man.

“Now don’t be silly, pap!” went on the woman. “I’m sure them young men
look harmless.”

“I assure you we are!” cried Jerry, and he quickly told why they were
on the wing, and how they had happened to come down. “We’d like shelter
and a meal, and are willing to pay for it,” he concluded.

At the mention of “pay,” the gun was at once withdrawn, and, after a
moment of whispered conversation between the man and his wife, the
former came out, looking rather ashamed of his action. He left his gun
behind.

“Well, strangers,” he said, “I guess maybe it’s all right. I have
to be cautious, you know, livin’ all alone as I do, with a wife an’
nine children t’ protect. Come out, ’Mandy,” he called, and a woman,
followed by the nine youngsters, ranging in sizes like a “pair of
stairs,” came from behind the wood pile.

The children, once they saw that no immediate harm was intended,
gathered about the airship, as did the man and his wife. Soon there
was a feeling of confidence and friendship, and the woman at once set
about getting a meal. Jerry and his chums told how the craft worked,
and the solitary farmer was much interested. He admitted that all he
knew about airships was what Gabe Ralston had told him.

“An’ Gabe can’t read over’n above well,” the man added.

There was hardly room for the boys to sleep in the small cabin, and so,
after a generous supper, they were given blankets, and made their beds
out of doors. The night was a fine one, and they slept well. Jerry’s
generous payment for the accommodation brought a storm of protest from
the man and his wife the next morning. But the tall lad said:

“Oh, that’s not too much, but if you think it is----”

“Have ’em put us up a lunch,” suggested Bob in a hoarse whisper.

“Chunky suggests a lunch,” finished the tall lad with a smile, and the
woman hastened to fill the basket.

For the rest of that day the motor boys circled about, or advanced
swiftly in straight lines, ever seeking the _Comet_. But she was not in
sight.

At noon they descended to renew their supply of gasolene, and the
night was spent in a country village, where they created considerable
excitement and interest.

It was about ten o’clock the next morning when Bob hastily caught up
the binoculars, and directed them at a speck in the sky off to the left.

“See anything?” asked Jerry quickly.

“I’m not sure,” replied the fat lad, after an observation, “it’s either
a big bird or----”

He did not finish his sentence, but his hands trembled slightly as he
passed the glasses to Jerry. Ned reached over and managed the wheel
while Jerry looked.

“It’s her all right!” suddenly cried the tall lad. “Now to catch him.”

“Is it Noddy?” asked Ned eagerly.

“It’s the _Comet_ all right,” was the answer, “and I guess Noddy’s on
board. Now to see what the _Chaser_ is made of!”

Jerry opened the motor full, and with a roar that fairly shook the
comparatively frail craft from end to end, she shot ahead, her
propellers beating the air relentlessly.

“It’s going to be a desperate race!” cried Ned.

“And we’re going to win!” declared Jerry grimly.

The race was on. Faster and faster flew the _Chaser_, until, even
without the glasses, it could be seen that she was drawing nearer to
the _Comet_. A view through the binoculars showed that those on board
the stolen aircraft were rushing frantically about, doubtless trying to
develop as much speed as possible.

“Can you make it, Jerry?” asked Ned.

“We’ve _got_ to!” was the quick reply.

It was evident that the only hope the motor boys had of recovering
their craft lay in the inability of those on board her to get out of
her all the speed possible. With the machinery of the _Comet_ run to
the best advantage, no other airship could catch her. But Jerry counted
on Noddy and his cronies not knowing enough to do the right thing at
the right time. Then, too, the _Chaser_ was very speedy when rightly
handled.

Nearer and nearer crept the pursuing craft. She was directly in the
rear of the _Comet_ now. Suddenly Bob cried:

“Jerry, they’re going up!”

“Then we’ll go too!” was the answer. “We can hit as high an altitude as
they can.”

“And they’re flying as a dirigible, and not as an aeroplane at all!”
added Ned. “They’re afraid to use the wing planes, Jerry! Maybe we can
get ahead of ’em after all!”




CHAPTER XX

A GAME IN THE AIR


With a pull on the lever of the ascending rudder, Jerry sent the
_Chaser_ shooting upward into the air. He made the craft take a long
slant, for he had seen that the _Comet_ was going up more vertically,
and Jerry figured on getting under the stolen airship, and then, when
once in advance, turning, and so approaching head on.

“They’re going up fast!” commented Ned, watching their own craft
narrowly.

“Yes,” assented Jerry. “They’re using all the gas the generator can
turn out. I only hope they don’t burst the bag, or ruin the machinery.”

“If they do, we’ll make Noddy pay for it!” cried Bob.

“That would be more bother than it would be worth,” was Jerry’s
opinion. “We’ll try to get the machine away from him before he has a
chance to do much damage.”

Upward the _Comet_ mounted steadily, for those on board were evidently
pushing her to the utmost. On account of the limited facilities on the
aeroplane, Jerry and his chums could not go up on such a sharp slant
as could their enemies, but this suited our heroes just as well.

The two airships were now comparatively close together. The _Comet_ was
still shooting upward, and the _Chaser_ was directly below her.

Suddenly, from the upper craft, came a cry of alarm.

“They’ve discovered us!” was Bob’s opinion.

“No, they did that some time ago,” said Jerry. “I’m afraid something
has happened.”

“It does seem so,” agreed Ned. “Look at that smoke!” he yelled. “She’s
on fire!”

“No, it isn’t that,” was Jerry’s retort, after a quick glance at their
craft through the glasses. “They’ve been using too much lifting gas,
and the generator is choked. It’s escaping through the safety valve.
She won’t go any higher now, but she can still go forward. We haven’t
got ’em yet.”

As if to prove his words, the _Comet_, now that she had reached the
limit of her climbing powers, darted forward. But Jerry had made good
use of his opportunity, and he was now ahead of the _Comet_, though
still slightly below her.

“What are you going to do now?” asked Ned, as he saw his chum put his
foot on a pedal that connected with the motor.

“I’m going to use the last notch of speed, and see if I can stop ’em!”

With a rush the _Chaser_ mounted upward and, a few minutes later, she
was on the same level as was the _Comet_, and considerably in advance.
Both craft were moving with considerable speed, but, owing to the
fact that her gas bag was so choked with vapor, causing a big wind
resistance, the _Comet_ must necessarily move more slowly than the
_Chaser_.

“What are you going to do, Jerry?” asked Ned, as he saw his chum reach
for a rudder control lever.

“Turn around, and come back at him head on,” answered the tall lad.
“This is going to be a game of tag, and I’m going to make Noddy ‘it.’
To do that I’ve got to head him off. He’ll try to dodge, I expect, but
I think I can nab him.”

Then began what was perhaps the most risky and sensational game of
“tag” that was ever played--a game in the air, nearly a mile above the
earth.

Turning quickly to the left, Jerry sent the _Chaser_ directly at the
_Comet_. As he had expected, Noddy, who was managing the craft from the
pilot house, tried to dodge to one side. He could go no higher because
the gas retort was choked. But Jerry was ready for him, and met the
shift quickly. Once more Noddy dodged, this time on the other side, but
Jerry was right there.

The two craft were slowly coming nearer each other, for both had
reduced their forward speed. They were like two big birds of the air,
facing each other, hovering, twisting and turning, dodging this way and
that, one seeking to escape, and the other endeavoring to catch her
antagonist.

First on one side and then on the other, Noddy dodged, but every time
Jerry was there facing him. The _Comet_ could not get past.

“He’ll have to go down soon!” cried Ned.

“That’s what I want him to do,” answered Jerry grimly. “Once they are
on the ground, we can deal with ’em.”

“Where’s Bill and that fake doctor?” asked Bob.

“In the motor room, probably,” answered the steersman. “I hope they
don’t do any more damage to the machinery.”

The game was nearing an end now. Noddy and his cronies were getting
desperate. The bully made one last attempt to dodge past Jerry, but our
hero was ever on the alert.

Head on, the two ships of the air were almost nose and nose together.
Noddy could not possibly get past.

“Go down! Go down!” yelled Jerry. “Go down before I force you, and, if
I do, I won’t be responsible for the consequences!”

There was no help for it. Noddy’s unpleasant face, scowling in anger,
peered from the window of the pilot house. Jerry saw him pull the lever
of the deflecting rudder, for the bully had sneaked around the shop
of the motor boys often enough to learn the rudiments of running the
_Comet_.

Down and down she went, fairly forced by the _Chaser_ above her, by the
_Chaser_, that frail little craft of the air, compared to which the
_Comet_ was like a battleship opposed to a torpedo destroyer. But those
on the little ship knew their business, and, after all, brains and
skill told.

“Can he get by?” asked Bob.

“I don’t believe so,” answered Jerry, watching every move of his rival.
But Noddy had given up the fight. He was beaten at his own game.

Still downward he forced the _Comet_, while Jerry and his chums
prepared to alight the moment their craft touched the earth, to drive
away their enemies.

Bounding lightly, the _Comet_ landed on the ground. A moment later the
aeroplane followed, and Jerry let her run along on the bicycle wheels,
the propellers urging her on, until she was almost in contact with
the big craft. Then the tall lad yanked on the brake lever, and the
_Chaser_ came to a stop.

“Come on!” cried Jerry, leaping out of his seat. Bob and Ned followed.

Noddy Nixon lost no time in leaving the pilot house on the run, and
from the motor room emerged Bill Berry and the college man. They leaped
over the rail, and joined Noddy in flight.

“If we ever catch ’em!” panted fat Bob, as he ran as fast as he could.
“We’ll--make--’em--pay--for--this!”




CHAPTER XXI

OFF FOR THE CANYON


Jerry, who was in the lead of the chase after Noddy and his cronies,
came to a sudden resolve. What was the use of capturing the bully, when
the recovered airship might need attention? Clearly it would be more
profitable to look after their craft, and let Noddy escape, for the
time being. So Jerry shouted:

“Hey, fellows, never mind. Let ’em get away. We’ll only have a fight on
our hands, and it isn’t worth while. Let’s see how much damage they’ve
done.”

“But, don’t we want to catch ’em?” demanded Bob, who, though much out
of breath, had managed to catch up to Jerry and Ned.

“No; what’s the use?” asked the tall lad.

“But look what he did to our airship!”

“That’s just what I want to find out--what he did do to the _Comet_.
That’s why I say don’t let’s chase after ’em any longer. It will only
mean more trouble, and we’ve had enough. Come on back.”

Accordingly, the three chums ceased running, and turned back toward
the two airships. Noddy, with a backward glance, had ascertained that
Jerry and his two friends were no longer in pursuit, and so the bully
slackened his pace. His companions did likewise and, a sorry-looking
trio indeed, they made their way across the plain above which the air
game had taken place.

“Don’t you want to catch Noddy?” asked Ned.

“No; what’s the use?” inquired Jerry. “He’s done all the harm he can.
The thing for us to do is to remedy it. We must see to our own airship,
and then get back, pick up the professor, and head for Snake Island.”

“But what will we do with Mr. Montrose’s aeroplane?” Bob wanted to
know. “We don’t want it to keep.”

“We’ll have to take that back to Denver with us. We can easily do it,
as the side planes are detachable. Let’s get busy at that, and we may
be in Denver to-morrow.”

“And then for the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and Snake Island!”
added Ned.

Giving a last glance to Noddy and his cronies, who were still fleeing
across the plain, our heroes made their way to the _Comet_. Aboard they
found a scene of confusion, but no serious damage had been done.

True, a number of the machines were out of order, and the gas generator
was badly clogged, but these were defects easily repaired. In general
the stolen airship was in almost as good condition as when the
conspirators had taken her.

Beyond securing a few articles of clothing and personal effects, Noddy
and his cronies had brought away nothing from the airship. It looked as
if they had boarded her hurriedly with very little preparation, and had
rushed away, without even enough provisions for a long trip. They must
have stopped somewhere to get food, for some was found on board.

It did not take the motor boys long to decide what to do. They soon
ascertained that the _Comet_ was in comparatively good running order.
The clogged gas machine was fixed, and then, having enough food in the
lunch basket, together with what they found on their own craft, to last
them a day, they decided to sleep on board, even though they were in a
lonely place, and start back for Denver in the morning.

As for what became of Noddy and his cronies, they neither knew nor
cared. The bully and his conspirators had disappeared, and were
doubtless seeking shelter for the night.

“We caught them just in time,” remarked Jerry, as they sat in the cabin
of the _Comet_. “A hundred miles more and they would have been over
the canyon of the Colorado. Then they might have reached Snake Island,
and it would have been all up with our chances.”

“But now we’ll get ahead of him,” declared Bob.

“If Noddy doesn’t do something else,” spoke Jerry.

They spent the rest of the afternoon in taking apart the _Chaser_ for
transportation back to Denver aboard the _Comet_. Then they went to
bed, tired out from the day’s chase.

By pushing the _Comet_ to her limit, and by making an early start,
our friends were able to reach Denver the next night. Mr. Montrose
was exceedingly glad to see them, and he and his wife and little girl
listened with interest to the account of the adventures of the motor
boys in the chase after Noddy.

As for Professor Snodgrass, he was so busy classifying and making notes
of the specimens he had caught, that it is doubtful if he heard much of
what Jerry and his chums said.

“And what are you going to do next?” asked Mr. Montrose, as the boys
finished telling him they had brought his aeroplane back on their own
craft.

“Start for the Grand Canyon as soon as we can,” replied Jerry.

“But if this Nixon young man takes after you again?” inquired Mrs.
Montrose.

“We’ll have to do the best we can,” answered Jerry. “But I think it
will be some time before he catches up to us this time. It was a very
lonely spot where we left him.”

“And the walking wasn’t very good,” added Ned with a laugh.

“Still, after what he had done in the past, I would be on the watch,”
advised Mr. Montrose.

“Oh, we will be,” declared Jerry; and then, after a good night’s rest,
they put in the next few days getting ready for their trip to the
canyon.

The _Comet_ was thoroughly overhauled, and some needed repairs made.
Though Noddy and his companions had not been careful in their treatment
of the craft, still they had done no serious damage.

“Well, I think we are ready to start for the canyon to-day,” remarked
Jerry one morning, after about a week spent at the Montrose home. “We
can make it in two days, though it may take us a little longer to pick
out Snake Island, and have the conditions favorable for a descent into
the big gorge.”

“Then you are really going down into it?” asked Mr. Montrose. “You know
it is quite a fearsome place.”

“From all accounts it must be,” admitted Jerry.

“Think of it!” exclaimed Mr. Montrose. “I have seen it many times, but
no one can ever describe it. A great trough or cut in the earth, over a
mile deep, twenty miles wide, and many hundreds of miles long, winding
in and out, and, at the bottom a river rushing along resistlessly,
with waterfalls, rapids, calm stretches and vast depths of black,
silently moving water. And the walls of that canyon! All the colors of
the rainbow cannot compare with them. They are wonderful! Down in it
are mountains, great in themselves, but which look small in that vast
gorge. There is the glow of the Alps, the cold fogs of the Rockies,
there are purple shadows, shifting lights, snowstorms and rainstorms.
It is a place of terrific grandeur.”

“And we are going there,” said Jerry quietly.

“Yes, to an unknown island,” went on Mr. Montrose. “On what may be a
fruitless quest. Oh, boys, think twice before you go!”

“We have thought,” went on Jerry. “We are going. We will start in the
morning for the Grand Canyon of the Colorado,” he added.

“And all for a bit of radium--a fortune though it may be,” proceeded
Mr. Montrose.

“No, not alone for the radium,” said Jerry solemnly. “I have not spoken
of this before, as it seemed such a slim chance. But there may be, on
that island, the missing scientist, whose body was never recovered. He
may be there--in need--starving. We are going to try to rescue him, as
much as to find the radium.”

“Jerry!” cried Ned. “You never hinted at this.”

“No, because I did not want to raise false hopes. But, now that we are
at the last stage of the journey, I must speak of it. I hope we can
rescue that unfortunate man. For the mere treasure I would not risk so
much. But a life is at stake!”

“Then go,” said Mr. Montrose softly. “I would be the last one to hold
you back. And, boys, from what I have seen of you, I believe you will
succeed. I wish you all success! But, do not be deceived. You have a
hard task ahead of you. The Grand Canyon does not like to be conquered.”

“We have the _Comet_,” replied the tall lad, as if that was much, as,
truly, it was.

“Well, we will always be thinking of you,” said Mrs. Montrose, solemnly.

“And I want you to come back,” added little Gladys. “I may have a new
doll by then.”

“We will come back,” said Jerry, and his voice had a new tone in it.

Early the next morning, having said good-bye to their good friends,
the motor boys and Professor Snodgrass set off in the airship for the
Grand Canyon.

As they waved their hands in farewell many thoughts came to them. Would
they find Snake Island? Would they be able to discover the radium
fortune? And, more than this, would they be able to find and rescue Mr.
Hartley Bentwell, the daring scientist who had been missing for nearly
a year? Was he, by any chance, on Snake Island?

“If he is, we’ll get him,” said Jerry grimly, as he pointed the nose of
the _Comet_ toward the clouds.




CHAPTER XXII

OVER THE GREAT CHASM


There was no particularly difficult task in reaching the Grand Canyon
from Denver. In fact the boys could have walked all the distance in
time, or they could have gone by train, or in an auto. But their
troubles, as they well knew, would not begin at the start. It was after
they had reached the canyon itself--that awful gash in the earth’s
surface--that they would have a problem to solve. And that problem was
how successfully to descend into the gorge, and land on the island.

“And the first thing to do is to find Snake Island,” said Jerry, as
they settled themselves comfortably in the airship cabin, after their
start.

“Why, all we have to do is to sail along down in the canyon, and pick
it out,” suggested Bob. “The canyon is miles wide--twenty in some
places--so there will be room enough for us to get around.”

“Yes,” agreed Ned, who, with the others had been reading up some facts
about the canyon. “But it isn’t always clear in the canyon. There are
sudden storms, snow or rain, there are fogs--and you know you can’t see
anything in a fog, even if you have an airship.”

“Oh, well, fogs don’t last forever,” declared Bob. “We’ll just have
to keep on the lookout until we sight the island. Then we can lower
ourselves, make a landing, get the radium, and come away, and----”

“You forget about the missing scientist,” suggested Ned.

“That’s so. Do you really think he’s there, Jerry?”

“Well, it’s hard to say. There’s just a chance that he landed on the
island when the others were wrecked in their boat, and he may be there
yet. It’s a chance worth taking. I understand that a lot of provisions
were lost out of the boat, and they may have caught on the island,
as they floated down. Then, too, there must be fish in the river at
certain seasons of the year, and there may be birds, or some kind of
animals on the island that would do for food.”

“It would be a sort of Robinson Crusoe way of living, but it might be
possible. Of course it must be horribly lonely there, for one man alone
on Snake Island,” said Ned.

“With all the snakes,” put in Bob.

“We don’t know that any snakes are there,” remarked Jerry. “That may
be just a name.”

“I hope so,” exclaimed Ned with a shiver. “I don’t much care for
snakes.”

“Well, we won’t have much to do until we get to the canyon,” declared
Jerry. “We can take it easy, and get in trim for the hard work ahead of
us. I think we won’t make any night journeys. We’ll just land and rest.
We’re in no special rush----”

“Unless Noddy Nixon takes a notion to make another trial, Jerry,”
suggested Ned.

“Oh, I don’t believe he will. He’s practically stranded. How’s he going
to get an airship, and land on the island?”

“He might go by boat,” suggested Bob.

“That’s out of the question. No boat could live in the rapids. That’s
how Mr. Bentwell came to be wrecked--he and his friends tried a boat.”

“Then you don’t fear Noddy?”

“Not much.”

The trip that day was without incident, and at night they came to earth
in a quiet spot where they remained until morning. They made an early
start, and thoroughly enjoyed the fine, dry, crisp air through which
they sailed. They passed from Colorado into Utah, and the next night
they were within easy traveling distance of the Colorado River.

The next day they sailed over the great sterile valley, or desert, and
in the afternoon they had completed the first stage of their journey,
and were at the head of the Colorado, where it was formed by the
conjunction of the Green and Grand rivers.

“From now on, we’ve got our work cut out for us,” announced Jerry, as
they came to rest that evening, not far from the great river. “We’ll
follow it, and as soon as we get anywhere near Grand View, we’ll begin
making inquiries about Snake Island.”

“But I thought the island was between Grand View and Bright Angel
Trail,” said Bob.

“So it may be,” assented Jerry, “but I’m not going to take any chances.
It may be either one side or the other of those places, and, if we
inquire as we go along, we won’t be so far out. It won’t take us long,
and it is better to be sure than sorry.”

“All right, we’re with you,” assented Ned; and Bob nodded his head to
show that he agreed.

Their trip over the Colorado, hovering in the air about half a mile
above the river, was devoid of incident for the first two hundred
miles. They made that in one day, and camped the first night just over
the border of Arizona. From there the Grand Canyon proper starts,
though it is of comparative little grandeur until the Little Colorado,
a salty stream, joins the main body of water.

It was about noon, the next day, that the boys really got over the
great canyon. They had been sailing along, talking of the prospect
before them, and Professor Snodgrass had been classifying some of the
specimens he had caught while at Mr. Montrose’s house, when the aspect
of things suddenly changed.

“Don’t you think it’s about time we ate?” asked Bob, with a look at his
watch, as he started for the galley.

Jerry happened to look down through the plate glass window in the floor
of the main cabin, where they were all gathered, for the _Comet_ was
being steered automatically.

“Eat!” cried the tall lad. “Eat! Look down there, and then say ‘eat’
again if you dare!”

Ned, Bob and the professor looked. Below them they saw a great gash
in the earth--a gash a mile or more in depth, and the sides of which
were of black rock, mingled here and there with marble colored red,
pink and blue, with an occasional bright yellow. Then came sandstone
rocks, vivid in color. It was like looking into a great winding trough,
wherein a painter had mixed his colors.

And, at the very bottom, like a silver thread, ran the river,
zig-zagging in and out amid the mighty cliffs that towered on either
side. Cliffs now hemming in the powerful stream, and again spreading
out for ten or twenty miles. But the river itself was kept in narrow
bounds.

And the very narrowness of these bounds made the stream rush along
with such tremendous power, for it was a veritable Niagara in places.
White and foam-capped, again black and deep, with awful power it hurled
itself along.

Above this scene of awful grandeur hovered the airship, and, as the
boys looked, they saw how slight indeed was the power of their craft,
compared to the mighty forces that had cut this gash in the earth, and
which power still sent the river on its downward way.

“And we’ve got to go down there?” asked Bob softly.

“That’s it,” answered Jerry. “Do you wonder no boat ever lived to make
the passage? Or, at best, very few of them?”

“And that is where the scientist was lost,” murmured Uriah Snodgrass.
“I wonder if we shall ever find him--alive--or dead?”

And, as the boys gazed at the foaming river, down in the awful depths,
it seemed impossible that human beings could ever have navigated it.
But in the airship the problem was much easier.

“Now for Snake Island!” cried Jerry, as, having stopped the _Comet_ in
order that all might get a good view, he started the motor again. “Now
for Snake Island!”

“And the radium!” cried Ned.

“And my two-tailed toad,” added the professor.

“And, perhaps, the poor scientist,” spoke Bob softly. “I--I hope he
hasn’t starved to death.”




CHAPTER XXIII

THE BOAT IN THE RAPIDS


“Well, boys, we’re here at last,” remarked Jerry, after a while, when
they had traversed some length of the canyon in the airship. “We’re
here after a lot of hard work, and the next question is, what are we
going to do; now that we are on the ground?”

“Go to Snake Island at once,” suggested Ned.

“Eat,” advised Bob, who had started to get a meal, but who had come
back to the cabin, to wait while some of the things cooked.

“Chunky’s infallible recipe whenever anything goes wrong,” commented
Jerry. “Still it wouldn’t be a bad idea. We can talk it over while
we’re eating, and decide what’s best to be done.”

“What’s the matter with going at once to the island?” asked Ned. “I
thought that was what we came here for.”

“It is, but I think it will be a good plan to see if we can learn
anything about it before we go too far down the river. It may be that
there is no such place as Snake Island. Or, it may be that, even in
our airship, it is impossible to get to it. We want to find out all
about it before we go too far.”

“Well, what’s your idea?” asked Ned.

“I think we ought to----”

“Dinner’s ready,” interrupted Bob, and they went out to the table,
the professor carrying with him a book, carefully marking the place
where he had been reading by putting his finger between the pages. The
airship was moving at slow speed, and had been set to steer herself
automatically. So the boys had nothing to interrupt their talk of the
best plan to follow.

Eventually they decided to travel on until they reached Grand View, the
point where Berry Trail led down into the canyon to the banks of the
rushing river. They would make their inquiries there, regarding the
possible existence of Snake Island.

It was night when they reached Grand View, and, in order that they
might be among other tourists, who had come to visit the canyon, the
boys and the professor put up at a hotel almost on the verge of the
great chasm, storing the airship in a big open shed, sometimes used for
autos.

“Snake Island!” exclaimed the clerk, when Jerry asked him about it.
“Never heard of the place. Don’t believe there’s an island in the
whole stretch of the river. But there are some guides around here. You
might ask them.”

Which Jerry and his chums did, but with little satisfaction, for it
developed that few of the guides had been farther than the regularly
traveled routes taken by tourists, and this had not brought them to the
more inaccessible parts of the mighty river.

“Snake Island?” repeated one grizzled guide, when Jerry had put the
question to him. “If anybody knows whether or not there is such a
place, it’s old Hance Stamford. Hance give up guidin’ long ago, but in
his prime there wasn’t a better one at it. He’s gone in places no one
else dared, and if there’s a Snake Island he’ll know about it.”

The boys sought out Hance the next day. He lived in a little cabin, not
far from the hotel, being cared for by his son, who was employed as
a waiter. Hance was indeed old, being past eighty. Yet his dull eyes
opened quickly when Jerry put to him the question that meant so much to
the motor boys.

“Snake Island!” exclaimed old Hance. “It’s been many years since I
heard that name. Many, many years.”

“But is there any such place?” asked Jerry.

“Is there? Bless you, I don’t know, son. I’ll tell you as much as I
can, however. It must have been forty years ago, and there weren’t
many tourists in them days. Mostly Indians. I was making my way along
the canyon with an Indian, for in them days I had a notion I’d like
to discover things. Well, as you know, the canyon is narrow and steep
in places, and when it rains you want to make tracks, for the river
sometimes rises thirty feet in a short time. If you’re caught where you
can’t climb up, well--it’s good-bye for yours.

“A thunderstorm came up while the Indian and I were in a narrow part
of the canyon, where the river rushed along between black walls like
a mill stream down the flume. We knew we’d have to make tracks out
of there, and we did. But the rain came faster than we’d calculated
on, and we had to climb. Then came a fog that nearly did for us. We
managed to get some distance down the stream, and then climbed up the
steep sides of the chasm until we came to a niche in the wall. There we
stayed until the river went down, and we were there a day and a night,
with nothing to eat.”

“But about the Snake Island?” asked Jerry.

“The island. Oh yes. Well, when we were hiding there in the hole in
the wall, there came a rift in the fog. I happened to be looking down
stream, and I saw something big and black rearing up, right from
the river it seemed. I poked the Indian in the ribs--he was half
asleep, you know--Indians’ll sleep anywhere if they think they’ve got
to--anyhow I poked him, and he grunted and woke up. I pointed to the
tall, black, wiggling thing, and the Indian said: ‘Snake Island.’

“‘Snake!’ I yelled. ‘Who ever see a snake as big as that?’ Then he
grunted some more, and went on to say that there was a sort of stone
island in the middle of the river. It had been pretty well worn away
except a big hill and a tall thing, like a tower, that stuck up in the
middle, like a church steeple. It was this tall tower of black rock
that seemed like a snake. Of course the fog made it indistinct, and
the motion of the mist made it appear as if it was wiggling about. So
that’s all I know about Snake Island. I never went there, and I never
heard of anyone getting on it.”

“There was a party of college men----” began Uriah Snodgrass.

“Oh, yes, I heard about _them_. But they never got there, and one of
their number was lost. I tell you Snake Island is in a bad part of the
river.”

“But just where is it?” asked Jerry.

“As near as I can tell, between here and Bright Angel Trail,” replied
the old guide, as he nodded in slumber again. “I wouldn’t go there, if
I were you.”

“Well, we’re going,” said Jerry softly, as he bade the old man good-bye.

Saying nothing to anyone in the hotel about their plans, the boys made
an early start the next morning, and were soon gliding down over the
great chasm in their airship.

Below them rushed and foamed the great river--below in its chasm
trough, with walls of vari-hued marble, of sandstone that rivaled the
rainbow in tints, while in other places, near the water itself, were
black rocks, of flinty hardness.

“And to think that it’s seven thousand feet from the top of that gulf
to the water,” spoke Bob in awed tones. “I wouldn’t want to fall.”

As they went on they could see fogs and mists arising, while, as the
sun rose higher and higher, it made a scene of indescribable beauty,
the tints on the walls of the canyon changing every moment.

It was about noon, and Jerry had calculated that they had made about
half the distance from Grand View, when Ned, who was looking at the
rushing, foaming river below them, as it dashed along over a gorge
filled with rapids, cried out:

“Jerry, do you see anything down there?”

The tall lad looked through the plate glass window in the bottom of the
airship. Then he snatched up the binoculars and focused them.

“It’s a boat!” he cried. “A boat in those awful rapids! They’ve lost
control of her, and she’ll be dashed to pieces!”

“Anyone in it?” asked Bob.

Once more Jerry looked carefully.

“Three persons!” he exclaimed. “Well, it’s all up with them. That boat
can never make the passage.”

And, as he spoke, the frail craft was lost to view as a curtain of mist
rolled down and hid the rushing river from sight.




CHAPTER XXIV

STRANGE GHOSTS


“Did you see that!” cried Bob.

“They’re drowned!” gasped Ned.

“What was it, an accident?” asked Professor Snodgrass.

“It would be hard to say,” remarked Jerry. “Certainly the boat looked
as if it was going to overturn in the rapids, but I can’t really say
that it did. The fog rolled up just then and hid everything from sight.
I hope those in the boat weren’t lost, but their chances were slim.”

“Can we do anything for them?” asked Bob.

“Nothing, I’m afraid,” answered the tall lad. “We can’t even see
them, and it would be useless to descend into that canyon of fog now.
Besides, the current is so swift that the boat must be a good way from
here by this time.”

The airship was slowly floating along over the Grand Canyon, which, at
this point, wound in and out among the many colored cliffs, like some
great serpent. Jerry had shut down the machinery until it was barely
turning the propellers, and, had not the gas bag sustained the craft,
she would have settled down, for the motion was not enough to keep her
afloat as an aeroplane.

“Well, what are we going to do?” Ned wanted to know. “We must be nearly
at Snake Island, if there is any such place, and if we’re going to get
that radium fortune it’s time we got busy.”

“And I haven’t seen anything of that two-tailed toad, either,” spoke
Professor Snodgrass. “I had hopes of finding a specimen--even if a
small one--before now, but fate seems against me.”

“Wait until we get on the island,” suggested Bob. “There may be toads
there, as well as snakes.”

“What makes you think there are snakes there?” asked Ned. “Didn’t the
old guide say he thought it got its name because the tall cliff in the
middle seemed to wiggle like a serpent when there was a fog?”

“Yes, he did, and if we put on a little more steam, Jerry, we may get
to Snake Island now, in time to see that same thing. I say let’s move
faster,” went on the stout lad. “We ought to be nearly there.”

“But we might pass right over the island in this fog,” objected Jerry.
“It’s better to go a bit slow, I think.”

However, the problem was soon solved for them, as, when they had
proceeded a little farther the mist lifted and they had a clear view of
the stream as it foamed along below.

“But I don’t see anything of the boat, and the three men who were in
it,” observed Bob, peering downward through the window in the cabin
floor.

“No. Either by this time they have been carried many miles down the
river, or they are--drowned,” spoke Jerry softly.

“Well, then let’s keep a lookout for Snake Island,” suggested Ned, and,
knowing that they must be within a comparatively short distance of the
place, if it was there at all, they all watched eagerly, even Professor
Snodgrass laying aside his note-books.

Bob served dinner and the watch was resumed. It was about two o’clock
when the stout lad, who had just finished getting the galley in order,
looked over the port rail on the bow of the air craft. No sooner had he
glimpsed the river below him than he called out:

“Here we are, fellows! There she is! We’re here at last! Now for the
radium! There’s Snake Island. We’re right over it!”

“Say, you’re as bad as Andy Rush!” cried Jerry as he hurried out of the
pilot house, to join his chum.

“Well, if it’s true, we’ll forgive him for making such a fuss,”
suggested Ned. “But say, I believe he’s right, after all!”

“And if it is the island, oh! how I hope my two-tailed toad may be
there!” cried the professor.

There could be little doubt but that they were looking at Snake island.
Down below them, in a comparatively calm stretch of the river, was a
long and rather narrow strip of land, low on the edges, and rising
abruptly in the middle. There was a big mound, like a great hill,
covered with trees and bushes, and, in the center of this was the tall,
curiously shaped tower of rock about which the guide had spoken.

“That’s Snake Island all right,” agreed Jerry, “though I can’t say that
the rocky tower in the center looks much like a serpent.”

“Maybe it does from some other view,” suggested Ned. “Then, too, there
is no mist now. I’d rather believe the place got its name from that,
than because there were snakes there. Well, are we going down, Jerry?”

“I guess so. I was just looking for a good place to make a landing.
Let’s drop down to the lower end, and we can take our choice.”

As they sailed slowly down the length of the curious island they noted
that it was about four miles long, and about half a mile in width. The
river here was quite broad, contrary to the usual character of the
Colorado, and a glimpse over the surrounding territory showed it to be
so wild and desolate that it is doubtful if it had ever been visited by
a white man.

The cliffs, too, at either side of the stream, where the island divided
it, were so high, so rugged and precipitous, that it was positive that
no one had ever descended them. And, had even the most daring explorer
managed to get down, he never could have gotten up without a balloon.
For that reason it was plain why the existence of the island was
practically unknown.

“Well, I don’t see but what the upper end of the place is the best to
land on,” remarked Ned, after a circuit had been made.

“Guess you’re right,” agreed Jerry. “We’ll go down there.”

The _Comet_ was sent about, and, a little later, she began settling
slowly down in the great chasm, at the bottom of which flowed the river.

It was getting well on in the afternoon, and the sun, sinking in
the west, no longer cast its beams into the great gulf. There was a
twilight darkness hovering over it, a stillness broken only by the
murmur of the foaming river, that cast a spell of gloominess over our
friends. For a time no one spoke, and then, as the airship was about to
settle down on a smooth strip of sand, near the upper end of the river,
Jerry exclaimed:

“Say, what’s the matter with us all, anyhow? Anyone would think this
was a funeral. Wake up, you fellows!”

“All right! Wow! Let’s be jolly!” cried Ned in a loud voice.

There was a sound like thunder, and then, from that vast gorge came a
mighty voice, repeating in solemn tones:

“Let’s be jolly!”

“Bless my soul!” gasped Mr. Snodgrass. “It’s an echo.”

“Echo!” came back in a voice like a bull’s bellow.

After that they spoke in whispers, but even then their words were flung
back at them from the sides of the cliffs in murmurs and trills that
produced an uncanny feeling.

“This sure is a strange place,” remarked Jerry, as he brought the
airship to a stop.

“Strange place!” howled the echo. Jerry had spoken louder than he
thought. He laughed, and a giant’s chuckle was tossed back to him. The
boys looked at each other, startled, until Bob said:

“Oh, don’t let’s mind this. It’s only an echo. Let’s get busy, have a
supper and to-morrow we’ll get the radium.”

“Radium,” mocked the echo, but now they were beginning to get used to
it.

“Say, it looks as if there was a tide in this river,” remarked Ned, as
he noted a sort of high-water mark, where sticks and driftwood were
piled up on shore.

“No, that shows where the river rises when there’s a flood, or too
much rain,” explained the professor. “The Colorado rises rapidly at
times, because the cliffs are so steep that the water from the clouds
is almost instantly all poured into the stream. We had better get the
ship above flood mark, Jerry, as there may be rain in the night, and we
don’t want to go floating down.”

Accordingly the _Comet_ was wheeled farther from shore. Night came on
early, in the depths of that gloomy chasm, for they were over a mile
below the upper rim of the steep cliffs. But when the big gas lamps had
been set aglow, making the circle about the airship one of radiance,
and when they were gathered in the cozy cabin, they were all more
cheerful.

“Well, we’ll start on a radium hunt the first thing in the morning,”
suggested Jerry. And, being inside now, the echo was not so noticeable.

“And I will seek the two-tailed toad,” said the professor. “I wonder if
I could not have a look now? Toads come out at night, and if I take a
light I may succeed in finding one.”

Supplying himself with an electric torch, the scientist let himself out
of the airship. The boys heard him walking about outside, and then they
began talking of their trip so far, and speculating as to how it would
end.

Suddenly, in the midst of the discussion, there came a cry from outside.

“Hark!” exclaimed Bob.

“It’s the Professor,” said Jerry.

“Maybe he’s found his toad, and it’s bitten him,” was Ned’s
contribution.

“Boys! Boys, come here!” called the professor, and the three lads
rushed from the cabin.

“What is it?” asked Jerry. “Where are you?”

“In front of the ship,” came the answer. Then they saw the gleam of his
light, and hurried toward him.

“Look!” exclaimed the scientist in a whisper, and, as he pointed toward
the middle of the island, whence arose that curious pinnacle of rock,
the three chums saw several tall and ghostly shapes swirling slowly at
them. Curious shapes they were, like tall beings wrapped in trailing
clothes, with their long, thin arms raised as if in warning, and about
them seemed to cling, like an enveloping haze, a weird, purplish light.
The strange shapes seemed blown onward by the night wind.

“What--what are they?” gasped Bob in a whisper.

“Ghosts, I guess,” answered Jerry, with a half-hearted laugh. “The
ghosts of Snake Island.”

“Ghosts of Snake Island,” came back the echo. And then, as suddenly
as they had appeared, the “ghosts” vanished, leaving the boys and the
professor staring into the darkness.




CHAPTER XXV

A NEST OF SERPENTS


“What--what do you think they were?” asked Bob, after a few moments of
silence. He spoke in low tones, so that the weird echo would not repeat
his words.

“I give it up,” said Jerry.

“Maybe they were the ghosts of the three men in the boat, who may have
been drowned around here,” suggested Ned.

“Nonsense!” exclaimed the tall lad. “Don’t be silly, Ned.”

“Well, I was only joking.”

“Pretty poor joking,” commented Bob. “I’m going inside. It’s chilly out
here,” and he shivered.

“Yes, I guess it is more pleasant inside,” agreed Jerry. “Did you see
anything of your toad, Professor?”

“No, not a thing, but I got several other valuable specimens, so my
evening was not wasted. I guess I’ll go in with you.”

“What do you think those queer shapes were?” asked Jerry of the
scientist, when they were once more in the cabin.

“Well, it would be hard to say,” spoke Professor Snodgrass. “Of course
none of us believe in ghosts, and yet there are queer manifestations,
sometimes, that even science cannot satisfactorily explain. My honest
belief is that this was some effect of the fog, or night vapors arising
out of the damp ground.”

“But they looked--er--just like men wrapped in sheets,” spoke Bob with
a shudder.

“Yes, I dare say they did. And, if you tried hard enough you could
imagine almost anything. Probably it will be easy to explain. To-morrow
we will look at the place whence they seemed to arise from the ground.
It may be that there is a hot spring there, and that the ‘ghosts’ were
only wisps of steam vapor.”

With this explanation the boys contented themselves, and they were soon
in bed. Nor did they sleep any the less soundly because of the queer
manifestation. For they were sensible and healthy lads, and it took
more than a so-called “ghost” to disturb their rest.

In the morning, accompanied by the professor, they made a careful
examination of the place where the queer wraiths had been seen, but
it afforded them no clew. The ground seemed no different from that in
other spots on the island.

“Well, there’s no use bothering over that any longer,” suggested Jerry,
after a bit. “We can try and solve that problem later; maybe to-night.
What I think we’d better do now is to explore the island, and see if we
can find any of that radium. What do you think, Professor?”

“I agree with you, and yet I am in two minds about it. You see, boys,
while I want to help you find the treasure, which may or may not be
here, it is very important that I look for that rare toad. Now what I
am going to propose is this:

“You go off by yourselves, and hunt for the radium. I’ll tell you
in what sort of rock it is likely to be found, and you can collect
specimens, and bring them back with you. At night I’ll test them. But
you must mark, in some way, the exact location of each bit of rock
specimen you take. Then, in case there are evidences of radium, we can
find the spot again.

“In the meanwhile I’ll be looking for the toad. I can soon tell if
there are any on the island, and if I find there are none, or no traces
of any, I’ll join you in the hunt for the radium treasure. Or, in case
I do get what I am looking for, I will be satisfied, and in that case I
will also join you.”

“That’s a good plan,” agreed Jerry. “Come on, Bob and Ned, and we’ll
look for the radium, while the Professor is toad-hunting.”

Uriah Snodgrass had already told the boys much about radium, and the
various forms in which it might be found. He only reminded them, now,
of the main points to be remembered, and the three chums set off.

With eager eyes Jerry, Ned and Bob scanned the various kinds of rocks
as they passed along, making their way toward the lower end of the
island. As they advanced the land gradually rose until they were quite
a height above the river that flowed on either side of them. Across the
stream could be seen the mighty cliffs; black near the water, and of
various colors as the top was approached. There was the glow of the sun
overhead, but, only in the middle of the day, did the beams penetrate
to the bottom of the titanic canyon.

Specimen after specimen of rock was picked up and cast aside, as none
of them showed the characteristics of radium. Noon came, and the quest
was unsuccessful. They ate their lunch on a shelf of rock, looking down
into the wonderful river that had carved out such a channel for itself.
Most of the afternoon was spent as fruitlessly, until finally Bob
remarked:

“Fellows, don’t you think we’d better get back? It’s getting dark all
of a sudden.”

“I think we’re in for a storm,” spoke Jerry, with a glance toward the
clouds that hovered over the chasm. “And it looks as if it would be a
bad one. The river is sure to rise, and I’m not altogether satisfied
with the place where we left the _Comet_. She ought to be anchored
higher up. Let’s get back and make her more secure.”

They hurried to such good advantage that they were almost at the place
where they had left the _Comet_ when the rain came down. Professor
Snodgrass had already returned, without his toad.

“Boys!” he cried, “it’s going to be a deluge! There will be a lot
of water, and the river is sure to rise very high. I think we had
better get in the airship, and go up until it’s over. There may be air
currents down here so powerful that we can’t make headway against them.
My advice is to go up.”

The others thought this good, and so, in the midst of the pelting
rain, and against a current of air that every moment grew stronger,
the _Comet_ arose out of the canyon. Of course they did not escape the
rain by going up, but they were in less danger. All night the storm
continued, but the adventurers were in comfortable circumstances, for
they had anchored in a little shelter of rocks, securely tying down
their craft.

“Well, now to see if there is any of Snake Island left,” remarked Jerry
next morning, when the sun came out to dry up the dampness. “We’ll have
another try for the radium.”

Instead of stopping at the same place where they had made the first
landing, Jerry sent the airship toward the lower part of the island.

“We’ll begin there for a change,” he remarked.

It could easily be seen that the river had risen considerably, and, had
they remained anchored at the spot where they had seen the “ghosts,”
they would have been in grave danger. Though the water was now going
down, it had lodged on the upper part of the island many big trees and
piles of driftwood.

“Look at that!” suddenly cried Bob, as they were hovering over the
lower end of the island, looking for a suitable landing place. “There’s
a hut on the side of the hill that I didn’t notice before.”

“That’s right,” agreed Jerry, gazing at a rude structure of logs built
under a sheltering bluff, about a quarter of a mile from the shore. “We
passed over this place in the airship, too, but I didn’t see that. We
must see what it means. Maybe there is some one living on this island.
Perhaps----”

He did not finish, but they all knew whom he meant--Mr. Bentwell, the
missing scientist, might be there.

Ned took the binoculars, and directed them toward the hut.

“I can’t see anyone there!” he cried. “But say--Oh, look! look!” and
he almost screamed. “The snakes! The snakes! There’s a regular den of
them, right in front of the hut! A nest of serpents! Look!”

With trembling hands he passed the glass to Jerry. As the tall lad
looked through the binoculars his face paled.

“No wonder they call this Snake Island!” he murmured. “There must be
thousands of them! I’m glad we didn’t stay on the island last night.
Oh, look at those big snakes!”




CHAPTER XXVI

LIVE WIRES


“Where do you think they came from?” asked Ned, when all, including the
professor, had viewed the snakes through the glass. Literally there
were hundreds, if not thousands, of reptiles.

They were wiggling and squirming, in and out among the rocks and
brushwood, just above the mass of drift débris brought down by the
flood. All about, in front of the hut the snakes writhed, seeming to be
out of their usual haunts.

“The water must have brought them out from their nests, or dens, or
whatever it is that snakes live in,” decided Bob.

“Do you think so?” asked Jerry, of Professor Snodgrass. “Why would
water bring out snakes. I thought they liked heat.”

“They do,” answered the scientist, who was eagerly looking at the
snakes through the glass. “But in this case I think the water brought
them _down_, instead of bringing them _out_.”

“How do you mean?” asked Ned.

“Why, I think the rising river inundated some place along the canyon
walls, where these snakes lived. They were washed out, carried down
stream by the flood, and deposited here--stranded, so to speak. I think
it has been done often before, in years past, and that is why they call
this Snake Island.”

“I believe you’re right,” agreed Jerry. “And I don’t think the big
stone pile in the middle had anything to do with the name, though it
may look like a snake at times. Probably the Indians, in years past,
saw snakes brought down in the flood, and they named the island after
the serpents.”

“Well, I’m glad they’re not at the other end of the island,” spoke Ned,
who disliked snakes. “We’d better go back there and start over again on
our search for the radium. The river is going down fast.”

“There may be snakes where we were before,” suggested Jerry. “We didn’t
look very closely.”

“Don’t mention it!” cried Ned with a shudder. “Let’s get away from
here, anyhow. I can’t bear to look at ’em.”

“Um,” spoke the professor musingly. “I think I should like to go down
there.”

“What! Among those snakes?” cried Ned.

“Yes, as far as I can make out they don’t seem to be poisonous, and,
though there are some good-sized ones there, I don’t see any of the
constrictor variety. I think it would be perfectly safe to go down.”

“But what do you want of snakes?” asked Bob.

“I don’t want any snakes, but, where there are serpents, there may be
toads, and I might find my two-tailed specimen. Of course if you boys
don’t want to go down you can let me off at some spot where there are
no snakes, and I can walk to this place. I’m not afraid.”

“We’ll go down with you!” exclaimed Jerry stoutly. “I think----”

But he never finished the sentence. At that moment the door of the hut,
in front of which the serpents were writhing, was swung open, and three
figures, each armed with a club, stood in the portal, waving their
hands to our friends in the airship.

“Look!” cried Bob.

“Quick! The glasses!” demanded Jerry, and when he had them he focused
the binoculars on the trio in the hut on Snake Island. Then the tall
lad uttered a cry of wonder.

“It’s Noddy Nixon!” gasped Jerry. “Noddy Nixon, and Bill Berry! And the
other man is that dishonest professor! How in the world did they get
there?”

“Are you sure it’s them?” asked Bob.

“Sure!” answered Jerry, and, a moment later, the airship having
approached closer, it could be seen, without the glasses, that those in
the hut were indeed the bully and his cronies.

“Help! Help!” cried Noddy, waving his hands in appeal to the boys whom
he had treated so meanly. “Help, or the snakes will kill us.”

“They’re not poisonous,” shouted the professor. “Go at them with your
clubs.”

“Yes, they are poisonous!” answered Noddy. “There were some jack
rabbits washed down with the snakes, and some of the serpents bit ’em.
The rabbits died right away. They’re poisonous snakes, all right! Help
us!”

“That makes it different,” said the professor seriously. “I didn’t
think they were poisonous, but they may be. I wonder what we had better
do?”

“Help! Help!” cried Noddy again. A mass of the serpents seemed to be
advancing toward the hut. Bill Berry threw a stick at them, and the
reptiles wiggled off in another direction.

“How did you get in the hut?” asked Jerry.

“We came down the river in a boat. We were wrecked, and cast on this
island. Oh, we’re nearly starved, and if you save us we’ll never bother
you again!” promised Noddy. “Save us from the snakes!”

“Shall we do it?” asked Ned of his chums.

“For the sake of humanity we can’t leave ’em there,” said Jerry. “We’ve
got to save ’em; but how? We can’t go down there among all those
snakes.”

There was a pause, while the airship hovered over the hut on the
island, in the midst of the snakes. The three conspirators eagerly
watched the motor boys.

“Those were the three persons we saw in the boat in the rapids,” said
Bob in a low voice, and his chums nodded.

“Can we save them?” inquired Jerry.

“Yes!” cried the professor. “There is only one way.”

“How?” demanded the tall lad.

“By live wires! Take some uninsulated electrical wires, Jerry. Attach
them to the dynamo, let them dangle down from the airship, and then
sail over the mass of serpents. The wires will hit the snakes and
electrocute them. It’s the only way!”

“Then we’ll do it!” cried Jerry. “Come on, boys, and we’ll drop the
live wires, and save Noddy Nixon!” A moment later several coils of
copper conductors, each one carrying a deadly current, were being
dropped toward the surface of the island.




CHAPTER XXVII

THE TRANSPORTING OF NODDY


“Just a little lower down, Ned. That’s it. Now to the left, there’s a
big bunch of ’em there. No, that’s too much! Back up a little. Whoa!
Hold me there!”

Jerry was in the motor room, working the connections to the dangling
wires by means of which it was hoped to electrocute the serpents that
had made prisoners of Noddy and his cronies in the hut on Snake Island.
Ned was in the pilot house, directing the course of the _Comet_. The
professor and Bob stood by, ready to lend whatever assistance was
needed, while the prisoners in the hut, standing in the door, ready
for an instant retreat, watched with anxious eyes the preparations for
their rescue.

“Are you going to try and electrocute every snake?” asked Bob of his
tall chum.

“As many as we can, Chunky.”

“But that will take quite a while, to drag the wires across every one.”

“We won’t have to do that,” replied Jerry, as he looked through the
plate glass window in the floor of the motor room, one hand on the
switch that controlled the electrical current, while in the other he
grasped a speaking tube, by which he gave orders to Ned in the pilot
house. “You see, Bob, the snakes’ bodies are moist, and moisture is
a good conductor of electricity. So if I can drag a live wire over a
bunch of snakes, and only touch one, the current will go through all of
’em, and kill the whole lot. They’ll help to kill themselves.”

“I see!” exclaimed Bob.

“Watch now, we’re going to begin!” cried Jerry, and his chum, looking
down, saw the wires carrying the powerful current writhe and twist
about, almost like snakes themselves. From the exposed ends there shot
out a shower of blue sparks.

Suddenly one of the conductors touched a mass of snakes, that seemed
tied in knots. A moment before the snakes had been twining in and out,
hissing stridently. The next instant they were as if turned to stone,
for they had been killed at once.

[Illustration: SUDDENLY ONE OF THE CONDUCTORS TOUCHED A MASS OF SNAKES.]

“That’s the way to do it!” cried Bob.

Again a wire, twisting and turning, was dragged over a mass of
serpents, and the life went out of them. Time after time this
happened until the writhing snakes were more than half destroyed.

“That’s a new and wonderful way to kill snakes,” said the professor, as
he looked on. “I hope you aren’t killing any two-tailed toads.”

“They’ll be just as good for specimens,” remarked Jerry as he turned on
more power, sending the wires that dangled from the airship, swirling
about, carrying death and destruction.

At length, so great was the slaughter, that the snakes became terrified
at the unknown power, and with angry hisses, they began crawling away
in the crevices of the rocks, and under the bushes.

“I guess that’s enough,” announced Jerry, when he could see none but
dead serpents. “You can come out now, Noddy!” he shouted to the bully,
for the airship was close to the hut. Jerry began pulling up the wires,
the current having been shut off.

“Oh, take us away! Take us away from this awful island!” begged Noddy.
“We won’t bother you again. We’re sorry we ever followed you; aren’t
we, Bill?”

“I am,” replied Noddy’s crony, thoroughly cowed.

“But we have as good a right to stay and hunt for the radium as they
have!” put in Dr. Belgrade sharply.

“Then you stay!” cried Noddy. “I’ve had enough! I’m going back home.”

“And desert me?” asked the renegade professor.

“I don’t care anything about you! I wish I’d never come on this trip.
Oh, Jerry, I’ll never bother you again, as long as I live if you only
set me on the main land. We can’t get to shore unless you help us,
because the current is too swift.”

“What shall we do?” asked Jerry of his chums.

“Transport him,” suggested Ned. “We want the island to ourselves, if we
hunt for the radium treasure. This is an easy way to get rid of Noddy.”

The others agreed to this, and accordingly the airship was let down in
front of the hut. The professor began searching among the dead snakes
for a two-tailed toad, but did not find any.

Noddy lost no time in scrambling aboard the _Comet_. Bill Berry
followed, and Dr. Belgrade much against his will, did likewise. He
scowled at the boys and the professor, but they took no notice of him.
As Jerry had said, the less they had to do with the plotters the better
it would be.

Noddy was hysterically thankful to the motor boys, but they well knew
he might, at the first chance, play some mean trick on them.

“How did you come to get to the hut?” asked Jerry.

Noddy briefly told his story. He did not mention taking the airship,
nor the other unfair things he had done. He said he and his cronies had
managed to reach the canyon, and, in spite of the advice of guides,
they decided to try to float down the river in a boat. They took
provisions with them, but were wrecked in the rapids. They managed to
reach the island, and some of their provisions floated ashore. They
had landed near the hut, which they found easily, and took shelter in
there, hoping against hope for a rescue. They were at the opposite end
of the island from where our friends had first landed.

“Well, we’ll give you some provisions, and you’ll have to get to
civilization the best way you can,” said Jerry to the bully and his
cronies, as they were landed on top of the bluffs, and supplied with
food and water. “You’ve made trouble enough for us.”

“We left some of our food and things in the hut,” said Noddy, as Jerry
and his chums were about to sail away. “After the flood which brought
the snakes down, we didn’t dare go out. There was some stuff in the
hut when we reached it. I think someone had been there just before we
were.”

“What?” cried Jerry. “Someone had been in the hut recently?”

“I’m sure of it,” spoke Noddy. “There was food in some boxes when we
took shelter there. And some books, and papers with writing on. But we
didn’t see anyone while we were there until you came, and we were never
gladder to see anybody than you. We couldn’t find any radium. I’m sorry
I treated you so mean, and----”

“Well, never mind,” interrupted Jerry, in whose brain many thoughts
were whirling about. “Are you sure someone had been in the hut
recently?”

“Positive. You can ask Bill Berry.”

But Jerry had no desire to do this. He preferred to look for himself.
Bill was sullen and angry, and so was Dr. Belgrade. Both knew that the
game was up. But no attention was paid to them.

With no very hearty good-byes, our friends watched the trio of
unpleasant ones depart. They could reach civilization in a day or so,
and they had enough to eat and drink for that time.

“Now come on!” cried Jerry to his chums. “Come on, Professor,” for the
scientist was chasing after a new kind of bug.

“Where to now, Jerry?” asked Ned.

“Back to the hut on Snake Island. I’m going to see who has been living
there, and what has become of him.”

“Then you think it might be----”

“I’m going to make sure before I say anything,” interrupted the tall
lad, as he sent the airship aloft.




CHAPTER XXVIII

THE RISING FLOOD


“Well, I don’t see much here to help us,” remarked Bob.

“No, not much that tells anything definite,” agreed Jerry.

“Except parts of what seem to be a journal, or diary,” added Ned.

“But those same leaves from the journal tell a sad story,” spoke
Professor Snodgrass.

The three boys and the scientist were in the hut on Snake Island. It
was the day after they had taken Noddy and his cronies off, and they
were seeking for traces of the person who, according to the bully, had
been in the hut before they arrived. They found some preserved food,
older than any Noddy could have brought, and scattered pages of a diary.

“It is evident that someone--most likely a man--lived here for a time,”
went on the professor, “and that up to recently, he kept an account of
his day’s doings, for here is the last entry we can find, dated about a
month ago.”

“What does it say?” asked Bob.

“The same thing as for many days before. ‘Searched for it, but could
not find it.’”

“What do you suppose ‘it’ can be?” asked Ned.

The professor was silent a moment, and then he said quietly:

“Radium.”

“What!” cried Jerry. “Do you think someone has been here ahead of us,
looking for the radium treasure?”

“I am sure of it,” said Uriah Snodgrass, “and what is more, I believe
it was Mr. Bentwell.”

“Then where is he now?” demanded Bob.

“That I don’t know,” and the professor’s voice was solemn. “Probably he
is dead. He must have been here on this lonely island nearly a year.
How he lived in that time no one can tell. When he and his companions
were wrecked there must have been some food saved. Or, he may have been
able to trap, or kill, small animals that are on the island, or that
were brought down by the floods. He may have caught fish. At any rate,
we know that someone was alive here up to a month ago, for the date in
the book tells us that. Where he went to, we can only guess.”

“The snakes,” suggested Ned in a low voice.

“Yes, the snakes may have killed him,” agreed the professor. “It is
a sad ending to the life of a noted scholar, alone on this terrible
island. I shall preserve this record he has left, for his family.”

“But where is the rest of it?” asked Jerry. “There are only a few pages
here.”

“The others were destroyed, somehow,” replied Professor Snodgrass.
“The same agency that made away with Mr. Bentwell may have destroyed
the record of his uneventful search, or Noddy and his cronies, not
understanding the value of the book, may have used pages of it to
light a fire with, for on the hearth you can see where a fire has
recently been kindled. It is too bad, for a scientific person, like Mr.
Bentwell, probably made valuable observations of what took place in
this wonderful canyon of the Colorado.”

“Well, it isn’t doing us any good to stay here,” spoke Jerry. “It’s
only making us more gloomy. I vote that we get out, and make a careful
search for the radium. We won’t be bothered by Noddy and his crowd now,
and there isn’t likely to be another flood, right away.”

“I agree with you,” said the professor. “We will be better off by doing
some active work. I’ll take charge of what is left of the journal, and
we’ll begin our search. What food is left we’ll pack away in the hut.
Who knows but what some other daring adventurer, who seeks to navigate
the river, may be wrecked here? It may save his life.”

The food was carefully put away, and it was likely to keep for some
time, since there were no evidences that the waters had ever risen
quite as high as the hut. Then our friends began their search.

It was kept up for several days, and, as thoroughly as they could, they
covered every part of the island, beginning at the shore and working
back toward the big mound in the center, with its tall pillar of
sandstone rock.

“I guess we’ll have to make a record in our notebooks, the same as poor
Mr. Bentwell did, ‘nothing doing,’” remarked Bob one day, after nearly
a week of searching.

“Well, we’ve got all that hill to explore yet,” replied Ned. “And
that’s the most likely place for the radium; isn’t it, Professor?”

“No, I can’t say that it is,” was the reply of the scientist. “I think,
if we find it at all, that it will be on comparatively low ground. But
it begins to look as if our hunt for the treasure was likely to result
in failure.”

“And you haven’t got your two-tailed toad yet,” said Jerry.

“No, but I have hopes, boys,” and with that the professor, leaving the
three chums to search for traces of radium, went off by himself to
look for the specimen he so much wanted.

All that day the two searches were kept up, but without result. At
night they assembled in the airship, which had been anchored on a level
piece of high ground, near the upper end of the island, above the hut.

“Well, we’ll put in a few more days,” suggested Ned, as they arose from
the supper table, “and then I think we’d better get back home, and
admit that we’re beaten.”

“I don’t like to give up,” said Jerry.

“Neither do I,” came from the professor. “And yet I think we had better
get ready to leave. I don’t like the looks of the weather, and the
barometer is falling more rapidly than I care to see it.”

“Do you think a storm is brewing?” asked Bob.

“I do, and a bad one, too. I think we had better stay here one more
day, and then move. I’ll have to look in some other place for the rare
toad.”

When they went to bed that night there was a low muttering of thunder,
and fitful lightning, and Jerry insisted on his chums helping him make
the airship more secure by ropes attached to trees.

“We don’t want to be blown away in the night,” he said.

They all slept so soundly that they did not notice the increasing roar
of the river, as it rose in flood, due to heavy rains above Snake
Island. The river was always roaring, as it tore past the black cliffs,
and split in twain at the island, and, though the rain added to this
noise, it did not awaken the adventurers.

It was not until early morning that Ned, sitting up in his berth, was
conscious of an uneasy, bobbing motion.

“Hello!” he cried, hopping out. “What’s the matter? Why did you start,
Jerry? I thought you were going to stay another day.”

“Start! I haven’t started!” cried Jerry. “What are you talking about?”

Then, as he leaped out on the floor, he nearly lost his balance, as the
_Comet_ pitched and tossed. Jerry gave a hasty glance out of the window.

“Boys,” he cried, “we’re afloat on the biggest flood the Colorado ever
had, I guess! We’re still anchored, but the trees are under water! The
ropes are holding us!”

“But how can we float?” asked Bob.

“On the hydroplanes, of course,” said Jerry. “You know we’ve been
resting on them, instead of the bicycle wheels, for I wanted to take
the weight off the tires. Lucky for us that I did, or we wouldn’t
float. And now we’re on the surface of the river, and it’s still
rising!”




CHAPTER XXIX

IN THE CAVE


Steadying themselves against the swaying motion of the anchored
airship, our friends crowded to the windows to look out. They beheld a
terrifying and wonderful scene.

Almost the whole of the island was under water. Only the high middle
part, with its tower of rock, was out of the flood. Securely held by
the anchor ropes, the _Comet_, as light as a chip on the surface of the
waves, floated on the bosom of the flood. Her very lightness, due to
the fact that the gas bag was partly filled, and the strength of the
anchor ropes, had saved her. Then, too, the fact that she rested on
hydroplanes, or pontoons, was in her favor. These were a new feature of
the airship, which had only recently been added.

“Say, it’s lucky you thought to let the hydroplanes down,” spoke Bob,
as he looked out at the flood sweeping past them.

“If he hadn’t, we’d probably be wrecked by this time,” was Ned’s
opinion. The hydroplanes, I might explain, were light hollow boxes,
made water tight, and attached to the _Comet_ by long toggle-jointed
arms. They could be raised or lowered at will, and allowed the
_Comet_ to float on the surface of water. If you boys have ever seen
a water-spider, or bug, skimming along on the brook or lake, as you
doubtless have, you will get a good idea of how the hydroplanes worked
by recalling to mind the insect.

“Well, what are we going to do?” asked Ned, as he looked at the flood
sweeping past. On the surface of the water floated all manner of
débris, including much driftwood, and even whole trees. “We can’t stay
here,” went on the lad, “for we may have a hole punched in us any
minute.”

Even as he spoke there was a grinding sound, and a log scraped along
the side of the _Comet_.

“Yes, we’d better get out,” agreed Jerry.

“I’ll get breakfast right away,” said Bob briskly, “and then----”

“No, you don’t!” cried Ned. “No breakfast until we’re out of danger.
Why, we might be wrecked, and then I’d like to know how we could ever
get out of this canyon,” and he looked up at the towering cliffs on
either hand--cliffs that no mortal could scale. On each side--all
around them--was the raging flood, in which no craft, save one as
light as an airship, could have lived for a moment.

“It all depends on the airship,” agreed Jerry. “We must get away while
we can.”

The words were hardly out of his mouth before there came a crash, and
the craft trembled from end to end. There was a splintering noise, and
Jerry sprang toward the stern.

“What’s the matter?” asked Ned.

“We’ve been hit! One of the hydroplanes is smashed and a bicycle wheel
crushed! We’ve got to go up right away! Start the gas machine, Ned.
Bob, you come in the pilot house with me, and help. Professor, you see
that the motors get plenty of oil; will you? We’ll need all the power
we’ve got.”

Instantly the interior of the _Comet_ was a scene of activity. The
effect of the damage was at once apparent, for the craft had settled on
one side. But as soon as the gas began flowing into the bag she began
to lift, until she was once more on a level keel.

“All ready now?” called Jerry to Ned, in the motor room.

“All ready--let her go! But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to land on the high ground near the tower of sandstone. I
can see a good level place there, and the water can never get as high
as that. Besides, I want to make some repairs before we try to make
the mainland, and we can make ’em there. We’ll stay on top of the hill
until the flood goes down. Give me full speed, Ned. Tell the Professor
to use lots of oil.”

As Ned turned to convey the request to the scientist, Uriah Snodgrass,
who had been looking from a side window out on the flood, uttered a cry
of delight. The next instant he caught up a small fish net, attached
to a long handle, and thrust it out of the window, into the swirling
water. Then he cried:

“I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Oh, you little beauty! I’ve got you almost
at the last minute, when I least expected you. Oh, what a rare find!”

“What is it?” cried Ned.

“The two-tailed toad! I saw it floating down on a log, and I made
a grab for it. I have it!” and holding out the net he displayed a
queer-looking object--a hideous toad, covered with “warts,” but having
two unmistakable tails.

“Ugh! What a creature!” cried Ned.

“A most valuable acquisition to science,” declared the professor
proudly.

There came a shrill whistle through the tube leading to the pilot
house.

“What is it?” asked Ned.

“Aren’t you going to start?” Jerry wanted to know. “The river is still
rising, and more logs are coming down! Get a move on!”

“Aye, aye!” answered Ned, and he yanked over the electrical switch.
Instantly the propellers whizzed around, and the _Comet_ strained at
the mooring ropes.

“Now’s the time!” cried Jerry to Bob, who had been provided with a
light, keen hatchet, for the purpose of severing the lines. “Cut!”

The little axe came down as the _Comet_ lifted her dripping hydroplanes
out of the water, and, freed from the holding cables, she soared aloft.
Jerry directed her toward the big hill in the middle of the island,
where there was room to land. Fortunately there was scarcely any wind
to sway the craft, though the rain came down in torrents.

Well aloft now, over the raging flood of the Colorado, the _Comet_
was more like herself, and, with Jerry to guide her, there was
comparatively little danger.

“You’ve got to be careful how you let her down,” suggested Ned, when,
having set the machinery to working automatically, he joined his tall
chum in the pilot house. “You don’t want to smash that hydroplane and
wheel any more than they are.”

“Sure not. We’ll be down in a few minutes, and then we can get right to
work.”

“What about the radium?” asked Ned.

“Oh, we’ll look for that, too, as long as we’re in no immediate danger.
I hope we find it. The Professor got what he wanted, and it’s up to us
to make good, too.”

It was but a short distance from where the flood had floated the
_Comet_ to the place where Jerry proposed to anchor, and, a little
while after arising, the airship came gently down. It required no small
skill to make a landing without further damaging the broken parts, but
Jerry managed it.

“Make fast the ship! All hands out at anchor work!”

The professor rather disliked to leave off making notes about the
two-tailed toad that the flood had brought him, but he finally put the
specimen away, and joined the boys in the work of making their craft
secure.

They had landed on a small plateau, which was, in a manner, cut in the
side of the hill. Back of it arose a steep cliff of sandstone, while
the surface of the shelf was covered with trees, grass and bushes.

Ned, taking one rope, walked off to the left to fasten it to a big
stump that he thought would hold. As he came near it he glanced behind
a bush, and, as he did so he uttered a cry:

“Fellows, look here!” he shouted. “Here’s a big cave leading right into
the hill!”

Through the rain, splashing over the soaked ground, came Bob and
Jerry, the professor following. They stood grouped about a hole in the
slope--a hole large enough to permit a man to enter upright.

“Let’s go in and see what’s there,” proposed Bob.

“I guess it’s safe,” came from Jerry. “There are hardly likely to be
any bears on this island.”

Together they advanced into the cavern. It was dark, but their eyes
soon became somewhat accustomed to the gloom.

“It’s too big to explore without a light,” remarked the professor.
“This may be a place for valuable relics. Let’s fasten the airship, and
then come back with electrical torches.”

They turned to go, but, as they did so there came a sound which
startled all of them. It was the sound of a human voice and, in cracked
tones, as if the speaker had not used his vocal cords for some time.

“Who are you? What do you want?” was demanded in hollow accents. And
then there came a faint glimmer of light, and in the rays of it they
beheld a man--apparently a very old man--with matted beard, tangled
hair and hollow, sunken eyes, who stood staring at them from the depths
of the cave.




CHAPTER XXX

THE RADIUM TREASURE--CONCLUSION


“Bless my soul!” exclaimed Professor Snodgrass.

Bob, with a catching of his breath, and a nervous tremor, started to
run in a panic. But Jerry caught him by the shoulder.

“Hold on!” the tall lad cried. “It’s only a man.”

“A--a man!” gasped the fat lad. “I thought----”

“Stop thinking!” commanded Jerry.

The man in the cave advanced, and the boys and the professor saw that
he carried a torch made from some resinous wood that burned with much
smoke.

“Who are you?” again demanded the man, holding his torch on high. “Who
comes here to disturb me? Why can’t you let me die in peace?”

The professor took a sudden resolve. Afterward he said he did not know
why he did it.

“Hartley Bentwell!” cried the scientist, “we have come to save you.
You are not going to die. We have come to take you away from Snake
Island!”

The effect of these words on the unfortunate man was indescribable. He
fairly leaped forward, and a cry came from his lips.

“You know me!” he exclaimed. “You have come to save me? Oh, the dear
Lord be thanked! Yes, I am Hartley Bentwell, but in a few days more I
would not have known myself. I--I fear I was going mad. It was almost
the end. Oh, what a life I have lived on this island! Unable to escape!
Menaced by the snakes! Not a soul to speak to! In fear of the floods!
Oh, even now, my mind is not right!”

“There, there!” exclaimed the professor soothingly, as he would have
talked to a child. “You are with friends. You will soon be away from
here, and in your own home. We are going to restore you to the world
again. You have seen the last of Snake Island.”

“The last of Snake Island! Oh----” but the unfortunate castaway could
say no more, for he had fainted, and would have fallen, had not Jerry
and Ned caught him.

“Quick! Carry him to the _Comet_,” directed the professor. “When he
comes to, he must find himself in brighter surroundings.”

This was quickly done, and, as the rain soon stopped, and the sun came
out, when Mr. Bentwell became conscious, he found himself in a pleasant
cabin, surrounded by his new friends. A look of wonder came over his
face, and the wild, half-insane stare faded from his eyes.

“Here, drink this,” commanded Uriah Snodgrass, and he held out a bowl
of nourishing soup.

And, following a refreshing sleep, that afternoon, while seated in
the airship cabin, Mr. Bentwell told his story. He had been with the
scientists who, about a year before, had come to search for the radium
on Snake Island. There had been an accident, one boat was wrecked,
and the unfortunate man was cast alone on the island. His companions
escaped, and got back to civilization, believing him drowned.

The cargo of the boat, consisting of a considerable quantity of
provisions, stores and tools, was washed up on the island.

He built the hut, and rudely furnished it. Then, having nothing else to
do, being unable to escape from the island, he began a search for the
radium, as told in his torn notebook. But he could not find it.

Then floods came, there were several visitations of snakes, and, in
terror, he fled to the hill, where he found the cave that he made his
home, only going occasionally to the hut. He had been away from it
for several days when Noddy and his companions took up their abode
there. So despondent and gloomy was Mr. Bentwell over his plight that
he withdrew to the cave altogether, and stayed there, living on scanty
food. He did not come out, and so did not see the airship making trips
over the island.

“But now I am saved!” he cried. “Let us get away from this awful place!”

“I am willing,” agreed the professor. “I have my valuable toad.”

“But we haven’t the radium,” said Jerry.

“I do not believe it is here,” said Mr. Bentwell. “I searched all over
for it, and found not a trace.”

“Yes, we saw your notes,” spoke the professor. “I saved what were left
of them for you.”

The weather soon became pleasant again, and the river went down. But
the boys in their airship remained on the hill, as they liked it better
there. Jerry asked for three days more in which to search for the
radium treasure, and the others agreed to this.

“Well, I give up,” admitted Jerry, on the afternoon of the third day,
when, after a wearying search, he and his two chums were returning to
the _Comet_. “We’ll start for home to-morrow morning. Mr. Bentwell is
well enough to travel now.”

“I sort of hate to go back empty handed,” spoke Ned regretfully. “It’s
the first time we ever had a real failure.”

“We can’t always be successful,” commented Bob. “Whew! I’m tired. I’m
going to have a rest.”

He sat down on a grassy spot. Just below them was the _Comet_, which
had been fully repaired, and was all ready for the homeward trip. Ned
and Jerry walked on a little way, and then took a seat on a log, for
they, too, were weary. They talked over their adventures, agreeing
that, even though they had not found the radium treasure, they had had
a good vacation.

Bob suddenly jumped up, and rubbed his thigh.

“What’s the matter; sit on a thorn?” asked Ned with a laugh.

“Something like that,” answered the stout lad. “Or else a bee stung me.
Well, come on. It’s all over.”

They were packing up that night, ready for the trip home in the
morning, when Bob complained of a burning sensation in his leg.

“Better let me look at it,” suggested the professor, who knew something
of medicine. “You may have been poisoned by some insect.” But, when he
had looked at a peculiar red spot on Bob’s leg he cried out:

“Boys, that’s the most wonderful thing I ever heard of! Bob has solved
the riddle for us!”

“What riddle?” demanded Jerry eagerly.

“The radium riddle! That’s a blister caused by emanations from radium!”
went on the professor. “Look at it, Mr. Bentwell, and see if you don’t
think so!”

The castaway, who had had his hair cut, and who had shaved himself,
being attired in a spare suit of the professor’s, looked at the red
spot.

“That is undoubtedly a radium burn,” he said quickly. “How did it
happen?”

“It must have been when I sat down to rest,” explained Bob. “On the
hill out there. I felt something sting me, and----”

“It was the radium!” cried Mr. Bentwell. “Where is the place? Let us go
to it at once!”

“We can’t find it in the dark,” objected Jerry, but the professor and
the castaway hurried out on the deck of the airship leading Bob with
them.

“Point out, as nearly as you can, where it was,” begged Uriah Snodgrass.

Bob raised his hand, and, as he did so, he uttered a cry.

“Look! Look!” he gasped. “The ghosts! The ghosts again!”

There, floating down toward the airship, were tall whitish objects,
wrapped in a bluish haze, like the tall forms of willowy beings
shrouded in mist.

“The ghosts!” cried Bob.

“Yes, radium ghosts!” fairly shouted Professor Snodgrass. “I understand
it now. I wonder I didn’t guess it the first time. The ghosts we saw
before were vapors, caused by radium. It is the same now. Boys, we have
at last found the radium treasure! We will get it in the morning!”

They were up at dawn, after an almost sleepless night. Bob pointed out
the spot where he had rested, and digging there, under a thin layer of
sod, was found the peculiar hornblende rock mixed with pitchblende,
which contained the radium. It needed but a simple test to demonstrate
this.

“And the peculiar thing about it is this,” said Professor Snodgrass.
“Usually it takes tons of rock to produce even a grain of radium, but
in this case there is almost pure radium in this sample. We must be
careful of it, for, not only is it very valuable, but it may seriously
harm us if left exposed.”

Accordingly the first sample was put in the lead receptacle prepared
for it, and the work of digging the rock for more was begun.

But if our friends hoped to find an enormous fortune of radium on
Snake Island they were disappointed. For, after they had dug a little
distance down, the rock disappeared, and there was no more of it.
Search as they did, there was only a comparatively small quantity. But
that was of great value, sufficient to more than compensate them for
the trip, for the radium, being almost pure, commanded an exceptionally
high price.

“But there must be some where we first saw the strange ghosts,”
suggested Bob. They went to the place, but found nothing. As there was
a deep hollow, where before there had been none, they concluded that
the flood had washed the precious radium away.

“But we have enough to satisfy almost anyone,” said Jerry, one evening
a few nights later.

In the days following Bob’s unexpected discovery of the precious stuff
they had searched diligently, but no more was located.

“I think we have all there is here,” was the professor’s opinion, and
Mr. Bentwell agreed with him. There was no longer any use in remaining
in that desolate place, and so they arose, and left behind Snake
Island, and the rushing river cutting its way through the mighty chasm,
a mile below the surface of the earth.

Then, with her nose pointed toward Denver, the return trip began.
Little worth mentioning occurred on it. Mr. Bentwell continued to
improve and after a short stay in Denver, at the Montrose home, nearly
all traces of his terrible year on the lonely island disappeared.
Of course the story of the boys caused much comment, and they were
regarded as heroes.

They received many offers for their radium, but they refused nearly all
of them, giving a share of the stuff to Mr. Bentwell, some to Professor
Snodgrass, and a portion to Mr. Montrose. The latter was interested in
a Denver hospital that very much wanted some of the precious metal for
medical purposes.

As for their portions the boys kept some for themselves for future use,
and some they gave to the academy they attended. The rest they sold for
a large sum.

Nothing more was heard from Noddy Nixon, save that he and Bill got
safely home, after much hardship. As for the renegade professor he and
Noddy quarreled, and separated.

“Let’s go all the way home by airship,” proposed Bob as they were about
to leave Denver. “We can have the auto shipped to Cresville, and it’s
much easier to get meals in the _Comet_ than at hotels.”

“Bob, if you mention eating again, until we get home, we’ll put you on
a bread and water diet,” threatened Ned, and Bob went off to the galley
in a huff. But he was soon heard whistling as he made himself some
sandwiches.

The airship trip was voted the best, and accordingly, it was
undertaken. All went well, and in due time they were near their home
town. At his request, Mr. Bentwell was allowed to leave the ship at a
place where he could get a train to his home, for he did not want to
take his new friends out of their way. He had telegraphed, at the first
opportunity, to his relatives, telling them of his rescue. To say that
they, and the world at large, were surprised by his wonderful story, is
putting it mildly.

“Well, we got the radium treasure, after all,” remarked Jerry, one day
a week or so later, when they were all assembled at his house.

“And I caught the two-tailed toad,” added the professor. “My college
has conferred additional honors upon me for that. I am indeed a lucky
individual.”

“I wonder what you’ll look for next?” spoke Bob.

“And I wonder what we’ll do?” added Ned.

Those of you who care to know, may learn by reading the next volume of
the series, which will be called “The Motor Boys on the Border; Or,
Sixty Nuggets of Gold,” a strange tale of the Far West and of Canada.

“Well,” remarked the professor, “I think I will----” He stopped
suddenly, sprang to a small table, and clapped his hand down on it so
suddenly that he upset a pitcher of lemonade, which spilled all over
Bob.

“Ouch! Ugh!” gasped the fat lad. “What’s the matter?”

“I just caught a most rare specimen of a red-winged fly,” answered the
professor, pulling out a specimen box and imprisoning the luckless
insect.

“But--l-l-look at me!” gasped Bob. “I’m all wet!”

“Never mind, it’s a hot day, and you aren’t the only lemon in the
house,” laughed Jerry, as he helped his chum dry himself.

Of course Professor Snodgrass apologized, and made amends by helping
squeeze more lemons. And then, sitting about, he and the boys discussed
their adventures on the trip after the radium treasure. And now, for a
time, we will say good-bye to them.


THE END




A New Line By the Author of the Ever-Popular

“Motor Boys Series”


The Racer Boys Series

by CLARENCE YOUNG

Author of “The Motor Boys Series”, “Jack Ranger Series”, etc. etc.

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  The Racer Boys
  or The Mystery of the Wreck

This, the first volume of the new series, tells who the Racer Boys were
and how they chanced to be out on the ocean in a great storm. They
rescue another boy in a wrecked motor-boat and take him to their home
only to discover later that the stranger has lost his mind and cannot
remember who he is or where he comes from. Adventures follow each other
in rapid succession, and the Racer Boys finally solve the mystery in a
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  The Racer Boys At Boarding School
  or Striving for the Championship

When the Racer Boys arrived at the school they found everything at a
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  The Racer Boys To The Rescue
  or Stirring Days in a Winter Camp

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    or On the Road with a Circus

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    or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains

  The Boys of the Wireless
    or a Stirring Rescue from the Deep


  CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers,      NEW YORK




 Transcriber’s Notes:

 --Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); text in bold
   by “equal” signs (=bold=).

 --Printer, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently
   corrected, except as noted below.

 --Archaic and variable spelling is preserved.

 --Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.

 --Variant spellings of Pittsburg for Pittsburgh (PA.) and Allegany
   for Allegeny (River) have been retained as these have been used
   consistently throughout the book.






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