Clarence Young

“ As it approached nearer, cries of wonder could be heard, and then, as the craft swept straight for the settlement, with Jerry in the pilot house looking for a smooth place to make a landing, the whole population turned, and fled as though some pursuing demon was after them.
“They’re scared out of their wits!” cried Ned. “I guess they never saw an airship before.” ”

“ Let’s pass it.”
“Besides,” went on Bob, “we want to hear about the sixty nuggets of gold. There’s more interest in listening to a yarn about real gold than in seeing Noddy get fooled over something that isn’t gold; eh, Jerry?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, well, if you’re both against me, of course I’ll have to give in,” sighed Ned; “but I sure would like to see the look on Noddy’s and Bill’s faces when they hear that they’ve been stung. They don’t realize it yet, for they were some distance off when the old gentleman explained about it being his watch that caused the lode of gold.” ”

“ Jerry yanked back on the lever that adjusted the elevation rudder. The nose of the Comet was pointed upward and she shot into the air on a slant.
“We’re going up!” yelled the astonished and almost delighted Mr. Brill.
“I told you we would,” asserted his partner, as if it was an every-day occurrence with him.
Rapidly the craft soared upward, and in a few minutes it was floating several hundred feet above the town of Cresville. Higher and higher it mounted.
“How’s she running, Ned?” asked Jerry, from the pilot house.
“Fine. The motor’s going like a sewing machine. Is she steering all right?” ”

“ There was a groan of disappointment from the crowd.
“Stung!” cried one discouraged youth.
“Look!” cried Jerry, as he pointed to Noddy Nixon and Bill Berry, wheeling away a big barrow full of ballast, with Mr. Hitter racing wildly after them.
“Let him go,” advised the old gentleman. “He won’t come back after he has that assayed,” and he chuckled.
“I guess not,” agreed Mr. Nestor.
“I hope the sixty nuggets don’t turn out that way,” said Ned, in a low voice. ”

“ Jerry and Ned were awakened early the next morning by hearing Bob moving about the airship. It was so very early that it was scarcely light, and, for a moment they could not imagine what was going on.
“I say, what’s up, Chunky?” demanded the tall lad, leaning on his elbow in the comfortable bunk of the aircraft. “It can’t be time for breakfast; is it?”
“It isn’t light yet,” added Ned. “What’s the matter, Bob? Can’t you rest?”
“I can sleep as good as you fellows,” was the retort, “and I don’t see why, every time I move around, you think I have either got to eat a meal, or start cooking one. ”

“ THE HIDDEN MAN
“Someone has attacked him!” cried Ned.
“Maybe it was Noddy Nixon and his crowd,” added Bob. “Quick, Jerry! Let’s help him.”
“I’m getting there as fast as I can,” replied the tall lad. “But I don’t believe any one has attacked him. He’s all alone.”
“He’s hurt, anyhow,” declared Jim Nestor.
“His foot is caught,” added Mr. Brill. “I guess he must have stepped on a loose rock, and it rolled over on him, pinning him fast. I hope his leg isn’t broken.”
“Help! Help!” cried the professor again. “Get the snakes for me! They’re wriggling loose! I can’t hold ’em much longer!” ”

“ We’ve got as good a right to this gold as any one!”
“It’s Noddy Nixon!” exclaimed Jerry.
“Yes, and Bill Berry is with him,” added Bob.
“They’ve got a wheelbarrow,” said Ned.
It was true. The town bully and his crony, having heard the wild rumors of the gold “strike,” had come with shovels and a barrow to carry away as much as they could of the track ballast.
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“Here! You stop that!” yelled Mr. Hitter, as he saw Noddy and Bill shoveling heaps of rock and cinders into the barrow. “You can’t do that—you’ll ruin the roadbed!” ”

“ Quick!” yelled the professor, and, as they reached him, breathless, Jerry asked:
[208]
“What is it; are you hurt?”
“Hurt? No!” exclaimed the little scientist, and there was triumph in his tones. “Look!”
He pointed to a small box on his table, and from it came a subdued glow, as though a whole box of the old-fashioned sulphur matches had been dampened.
“The luminous snakes!” exclaimed Professor Snodgrass. “See them shine with light! They are the true illustris serpensus! I am a most fortunate man! My name will be engraven on the roll of fame! ”

“ What part of Montana was his baggage checked to?” he asked, of Andy.
“I couldn’t make out the tags very well, but the last part of the name was ‘Spell,’” spoke the excitable youth.
“Spell—spell,” murmured Jerry. “I have it—the town of Kabspell—it’s near Flathead Lake, and we were counting on sending our airship there to make the start! Noddy has gotten on to our plans somehow!”
“What’s that?” asked Andy, quickly, for Jerry was half talking to himself.
“Oh—nothing. I was just wondering what Noddy would do, that’s all. Much obliged for telling me. Here’s a quarter, Andy. Get yourself a soda.” ”

“ He had no weapon, but, seeing some shining tools that Ned and Jerry had been using on the rudder that day, he made a grab for them, evidently thinking them of great value.
“Hi! Drop those!” yelled Jerry.
“Indian take!” grunted the redman, as he rushed out again.
“There’s a score of ’em!” cried Harvey Brill, as he looked out and saw the Indians in the glare of the searchlight. “Oh, if we could only get out of this! We don’t want to hurt any of ’em, for it will mean trouble, and yet we can’t let ’em strip us! ”

“ If you fellows don’t know enough to throw on the switch after all these years of running a car, and then expect to sit there and grin your heads off while I break my back cranking, you’re mighty much mistaken—that’s all I’ve got to say. You may think it’s a joke, but I don’t! I’m through with you,” and turning on his heel, after flashing a look at his two chums, Bob Baker started off down the road afoot.
“Here, where are you going?” called Jerry, after him.
“Home!” was the short answer, “and I’m not going out with you fellows again in a hurry!”
Ned and Jerry looked at one another. ”

“ Have I got bugs on me?”
“You did have, my dear man,” said the professor, calmly, as he took out a small box, with a glass top, under which he imprisoned his prize. [42] “You were carrying about with you a very rare specimen of a jumping fly—something I have been hoping to capture for years. Now I have the little beauty. Oh, you can’t get away!” he added, as the insect leaped against the glass. “I have you safe.”
“Is—er—am I—what’s it all about, anyhow?” cried the miner, looking from one to the other. ”

“ I guess they think they can see us when we find the gold.”
“Well, as long as they don’t come down I won’t worry so much,” spoke Mr. Brill. “But as for finding the gold here we’re not going to do it.”
“Why not?” asked Jerry and Ned together, in alarm. Bob had gone to the airship galley to see about the meal.
“Because, after all, this isn’t the place,” said the miner. “I’ve made a mistake. It was coming down the valley the other way that I spotted the rock that looks like a church, and there I hid the gold. Coming toward this rock from the opposite direction did make it look like the same one. ”

“ THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE BORDER
CHAPTER I
QUEER ACTIONS
“What’s the matter, Bob, can’t you crank an auto yet?”
“I sure can!” exclaimed a stout lad, who was bending over in front of a big car, laboriously grinding away at the starting handle.
“Then do it,” advised a tall youth at the wheel. “Turn it over good and hard.”
“Yes, go ahead,” put in a good-natured looking chap in one of the rear seats. “We don’t want to stay here all day, even if it is a nice place.”
“All—right—here—she—goes!” panted stout Bob Baker, as he again turned the crank. ”

“ Hitter. “If you don’t get off the track you’ll be run down! Get off I say!”
“Not just yet, son,” said Harvey Brill, calmly. “This is too good a place to leave. If we’ve got a minute I may turn up another bit of pay dirt. It won’t take me a second to get out of the way of the train, and that leaves me fifty-nine seconds to dig in.”
“But you must get off the track!” insisted the agent. “You can’t dig up the ballast that way. The rails may spread and cause an accident. Get out of the way! There’s the whistle of the train!” and he rushed about, dancing up and down, pushing the crowd off the rails. ”

“ So eager did all become in their strange quest, searching in and out among the rocks, that they did not notice a figure slip over the edge of the precipice that hemmed in the valley, and dangling from the end of a lariat held by a number of men on top of the cliff, slide down to a fairly good foothold. ”

“ There’s one thing sure, they’ll never bother him,” and he pointed to Professor Snodgrass, who, totally oblivious to his surroundings, or any danger, was scurrying about, catching bugs and specimens in his little nets.
“Why not?” Bob wanted to know.
“Because they think he’s a little crazy—touched in the head, you know. I heard some of ’em say so. The Indians—at least most of ’em—regard a crazy person as particularly under the protection of the Great Spirit, and they’ll never harm one.”
“Then maybe we can get the professor to protect us if worst comes to worst,” suggested Ned. ”

“ They say they don’t like it there—too small,—and they want to live freer. They’re out for a good time.”
“And does that mean trouble for us?” asked Jerry.
“Well, it may and it may not. The Indians have been cooped up for a long time, and they’ve lost much of their wildness. But it never all dies out, and, once they feel that they are free—even though they know they may be punished for what they do—they may go on a rampage again—just for fun, as they think.”
“Then we’ve got to be careful,” suggested Ned, who was eyeing the redmen with interest. ”

“ The craft was still in the shed, but would soon be ready to be wheeled out and sent skyward.
“Maybe he didn’t come here after all,” suggested Ned.
“Oh, I believe he did,” declared Jerry. “Noddy isn’t the kind of a fellow to give up when he sees a chance to annoy us. I believe he found out, in some way, that we were coming here; and he suspects what for. If he hasn’t shown himself it’s because he doesn’t want us to see him.”
“And there are a lot of strangers in town,” went on Bob. “There have been rumors of a rich strike somewhere out this way, and the miners are just pouring into Kabspell.” ”

“ There was in Bolton what passed for a hotel, but Bob whispered:
“We can get better meals ourselves than they can serve. Let’s stick to the ship.”
“I believe you’re right, Chunky,” assented Jerry. “We will.”
Once the first fright and curiosity was over, the minds of the villagers naturally turned to the object that had brought the voyagers in their midst. By this time Professor Snodgrass had put aside his note books, and was stalking along through the crowd, looking for rare insects. Approaching one burly miner the scientist exclaimed:
“Ha! Now I have him!” ”

“ And indeed Bob’s description was as accurate as any. The floor of the long, but narrow, valley was covered with great rocks and boulders, some of them of vari-colored sandstone, and others of hard, and almost black, granite. Some were of odd shapes, and they differed in size from those almost as large as a house, to mere rocks that a lad could have tossed.
“That happened when the landslide came down,” explained Mr. Brill. “If you’d been here then you would have thought the earth was coming to an end. I never heard such a racket, and the way the rocks and earth tumbled down here was a caution. ”

“ White man heap smart—boys smart too. Come by eagle wings to get bear. Indian shoot first.”
“That’s not so, and you know it, Standing Horse!” exclaimed the miner, sharply. “We did come by eagle wings out to this country, and by that I suppose you mean our airship. But if you think we came here to be cheated out of our rights by you fellows, you’ve got another think coming!”
“Bah! White man think much—talk much,” half sneered the redman.
“Well, I always say what I think, which is more than I can say about you, Standing Horse, and them that’s with you,” retorted Harvey Brill. ”

“ He’s the limit!” cried Ned. “He’d make some kind of pastry, or dessert, if he had to use crackers and water, and we were eating our last meal. I never saw such a chap for grub!”
“Let him alone,” suggested Jerry, good-naturedly. “He means all right.”
“That looks like a good place to land,” suggested Jim Nestor, a little later, as the airship approached a spot comparatively free from boulders.
“I’ll try it,” agreed Jerry, and a few minutes afterward the motorship was safely anchored, while night settled down over the mysterious valley. ”

“ It was now quite dark, for dinner, at which had been talked over the plan for getting the sixty nuggets of gold, had been somewhat protracted, and night had fallen when Andy Rush made his startling announcement.
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“There are two boats!” cried Ned, as he and Jerry, in the lead, came in sight of the club house.
“Yes, one is Mr. Wakefield’s Iris,” said Jerry, who knew every boat in the club. “And the other is Mr. Wood’s Eel.”
“Which one’ll you take?”
“The Eel, I guess. She’s faster, though not so easy to handle. Pile in! Do you see anything of him?” ”

“ Then it began to sink slightly.
“What’s the matter?” yelled the miner.
“Something’s wrong with the gas bag!” answered Jerry, who saw by the vapor gauge before him that they were losing buoyancy. Then from the observation cabin where he had gone, Bob yelled:
“There’s a crowd just below us, and they’re shooting at us, too! They’re aiming at the gas bag!”
“I thought so!” murmured Jerry. The Comet lurched to one side, and settled more and more.
“Shut off the motor, Ned!” cried the tall lad. “We’ve got to go down!” ”

“ Jim Nestor relieved Harvey Brill at standing guard, but, when night fell, it was decided that instead of staying in the open, and building a campfire, the watch would be kept from within the airship.
“We can take turns in the pilot house,” said Jerry, “and I can mount the search lamp on top of it, so it can be swung in a circle all about, being worked from inside. By keeping it on the move it will flash all around the Comet at intervals, and the one on watch can spot the Indians if they try to attack us.” ”

“ Bob was the son of Mr. Andrew Baker, a rich banker; Jerry the only son of a well-to-do widow—Mrs. Julia Hopkins; while Ned’s father, Aaron Slade, was a well-known department store proprietor.
The boys’ acquaintance began when they each became possessed of bicycles, and went on trips together. Then they got motor cycles, as related in the first volume of the series, “The Motor Boys,” and, winning a race, they got an auto as a prize.
In their car they went on a tour overland, with a certain Professor Snodgrass, an enthusiastic collector of bugs and insects for various colleges and museums. ”