Ned Rector

“ His troubles certainly are not over yet," laughed Tad. "We must try not to annoy him so much this trip. We are older now and ought to use better judgment."
"That's what I've been telling Ned," spoke up Stacy. "He's old enough to——-"
"To—-what?" demanded Ned.
Chunky quailed under the threatening gaze of Ned Rector. He mumbled some unintelligible words, settled back in his chair and made himself as inconspicuous as possible.
"Pooh! Professor Zepplin enjoys our pranks as much as do we ourselves.
He just makes believe that he doesn't. He's a boy himself." ”

“ This is indeed a surprise, my man."
"I am thankful that he is at last making an effort to earn his wages," muttered Tad Butler. "Thus far he hasn't done much in that direction."
"You must admit that he has guided us pretty well," defended Walter Perkins.
"You mean we have guided ourselves," differed Ned Rector. "Anybody could follow this hollow; in fact, one couldn't get out of it until he got to the end—that is, unless he had wings—unless he was a bird."
"That's Chops," declared Stacy.
"What do you mean?" demanded Ned, turning to the fat boy. ”

“ The boys climbed the paddock fence and looked over the lot.
“Me for that black one over yonder,” cried Chunky.
“Why the black one?” asked Ned. “I thought you liked the lighter colors, the delicate tints?”
“I do when some other fellow has to groom the animals. For a labor-saving color give me black every time. With a black horse I can sleep half an hour longer than any fellow who has a white one and yet be ready for breakfast as soon as he is.”
50“You’re too lazy to change your mind,” growled Ned Rector.
“You want the black one, you say?” questioned Tad. ”

“ You couldn't stay on any kind of horse for long at a time. Why, you'd fall off one of those wooden horses that they have in harness shops," announced Ned Rector witheringly.
"I can ride as well as you can," retorted the fat boy, looking his tormentor straight in the eyes.
"Chunky means business when he looks at you that way," laughed
Walter. "Better keep away from him, Ned."
"Think I'll take the pink-eyed one," decided Tad. "Pink-eye. That will be a good name for him. Got a rope?" ”

“ It's me for the feathers."
"You're right, Ned," agreed Tad. "We are a lot of silly boys to be so upset over a fellow who has had a crazy nightmare. Professor, don't you think you ought to give Stacy some medicine?"
"Yes, give him something to make him sleep," chuckled Walter.
The boy was interrupted by a roar from Ned Rector's tent. Ned was shouting angrily. He burst out into the circle of light shed by the camp fire, waving his hands above his head. ”

“ Ned. It makes me dizzy. I'm afraid I'll fall in," growled Chunky.
CHAPTER IV A NIGHT IN THE CRATER "What, climb that mountain?" demanded Stacy.
"Surely. You are not afraid of a mountain, are you?" demanded Tad.
"I'm not afraid of—-of anything, but I'm delicate, I tell yau."
"Just the same, you'll pack about fifty pounds up the side of that hill," jeered Ned Rector.
The pack mules had not yet come up with their driver. The party foreseeing this, had brought such articles as would be needed for the night. ”

“ At first they could scarcely believe it to be true.
"Are—are they for us—for us to use?" stammered Tad.
"That's what they're for, young gentlemen," smiled the guide. "You surely didn't expect to go hunting without guns, did you? At the Professor's suggestion I have been keeping them as a sort of surprise for you."
"Three cheers for Lige Thomas and Professor Zepplin," cried Ned Rector, in which the boys joined with a will, their shouts echoing back to them from the rocky peaks on the other side of the gulch.
"Rifles and ponies! We surely ought to be happy!" laughed Tad, with flashing eyes. ”

“ So speaking, he slapped Redgill in the face, and then spat upon him.
“Hollo! what’s all this?”
“He’s struck our friend.”
“Knock the brat down,” said one and another.
“Keep your places,” said Ned, with a look of scorn; “the first man of you that dare interfere in this quarrel shall in less than a minute lie at my feet a bleeding corpse!”
Throwing off his cloak, he stood before Phillip Redgill, sword in hand.
“Come on!” said he, “I told you we should meet again; draw, I tell you, draw villain, or I will slay you where you stand, Phillip Redgill!”
“He shall not fight!” said Captain Jack ”

“ Ned would say, “how?”
“How I cannot explain yet,” was the invariable answer. “When you are twenty-one years old, you may know more; but this much I will tell you, Ned, that old Redgill, Phillip’s father, hated your father much worse than you do Phillip.”
“How I cannot explain!” repeated Ned often, when in the cosy library at Darlington Hall, conversing with the old knight in long winter evenings. “How! Why, tell me all.”
“You are too young yet; one day you will find out all if you live to be old enough!”
“If I only live to be old enough,” thought Ned ”

“ Did you really go up in an airship and down in a submarine, the way Professor Snodgrass tells?”
“Why, yes, we did,” said Ned. “But that’s nothing. Any one could have done the same things we did.”
“Say, you sure have seen life!” exclaimed Ted admiringly. “But I guess that’s all that ails Frank. He thought you might try to lord it over us here, I guess.”
“He’s away off!” declared Jerry.
“I can see he is,” admitted Ted. “But, as I told you, Frank is headstrong. Once he gets a notion it’s hard to get it out of him.” ”

“ We have not dwelt on the meeting in the cabin, which survived the flames, between the despairing fugitives and their rescuers. Its joyful nature may be imagined. The countenance of the handsome, willowy young Shawanoe was aglow with pleasure, when he grasped the hand of the no less delighted Ned Preston, who had believed him dead until he saw him walk forth in the glare of the burning building.
"You must come and live with us," said Ned, at the end of the journey, and after the others had thanked the wonderful youth for his services, which were beyond value. ”

“ Redgill did so, and bit his lips until they became bloodless and white.
“Why carry a sword if afraid to use it?” said Ned, scornfully turning on his heel.
After a pause Wildfire Ned said, calmly and slowly—
“Redgill, you are not a man; you are a coward, a snake in the grass; you leave a poisonous slime wherever you go. Bloody deeds follow in your wake wherever you tread! There is no love lost between us, ’tis true; but you are a mischief-maker; a deceiver; I could say more perhaps.”
“Say on,” said Redgill, turning pale.
“Murderer is marked on your face, Phillip Redgill,” said Ned, sternly. ”

“ He treated his wife, Fanny, in the most shameful manner, and led her also into vice and crime; but as long as she supplied him with money from time to time, he seldom went home, and did not care how or whence the money came. I heard all the facts from a spy, whom I employed, and [Pg 119] who, for the last three days before his capture, followed Phillip Redgill about like a shadow.”
“Like an evil genius,” said Ned, smiling.
“Just so,” said Captain Jack, smoking a cigar. ”

“ The blast of keen sea air that swept in seemed, to Ned’s delight, to revive Mr. Lockyer. He stirred like a man awakening from a long sleep.
“Come, sir, come!” cried Ned, lifting him; “can’t you stand?”
“I—what has happened?” asked the inventor thickly. He stared about him with a blank look.
“You’ve been drugged by rascals, but I’m going to get you out of here,” rejoined Ned; “come, sir; rouse up. Ah, that’s better,” as the inventor, with the lad’s aid, got to his feet. He stood staggeringly, and then Ned, as gently as he could, half-dragged, half-carried him to the window. ”

“ In the Prince Regent there were many at the bar, and the most of them knew Neddy.
"Wayo, Ned," said one lad with a pitted face, "you don't look much of a bleed'n' champion. 'Ave a drop o' beer."
Ned took a sparing pull at the pot, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. A large man behind him guffawed, and Neddy reddened high. He had heard the joke. The man himself was one of the very backers that might make one's fortune, and the man's companion thought it would be unsafe to back Neddy to fight anything but a beefsteak.
"You're drawed with Patsy Beard," one of Ned's friends informed him. ”

“ Then the instinct of the doctor came uppermost once more.
"Is some one ill?" he asked briefly.
"Yes; it's Ned," answered Louise hurriedly. "He hasn't been well all day, and he's worse to-night, so I wanted you to see him. Cousin Euphemia says it's nothing but—Come, you can see for yourself."
In a moment more they were leaning over Ned, their evening costumes contrasting strangely with the flushed face of the restless little patient. With his usual bright, off-hand manner, the doctor greeted Ned, as if his coming had been simply a matter of chance. ”

“ But the Motor Boys had no further part in it. They remained in the village where they had met the little scientist, as a guard, until the Germans were so far away as to render them harmless.
“And to think you found the girls all by yourself!” exclaimed Ned, as they were talking over the events after the first day of the capture of the French town.
“Well, yes, I did manage to,” said the professor, “though I never expected, when I started out for a butterfly that morning, that I’d end up with meeting the girls I so much wanted to see.” ”

“ Hallet. There are other field mice.”
“None like this one,” was the reply. “He was suffering from a peculiar fungus ailment and I wanted to make a special study of it when I got back home. Dear me! This is terrible! I was sure I could beat Professor Snodgrass at this game, but it seems I am fated not to.”
“I’d like to hear something about this game against our professor,” muttered Ned, “but there isn’t time now. Come on! You’re lucky to have your papers and fleas!”
[216]
As for Ned, he thought with regret of certain souvenirs he, in common with Bob and Jerry, had brought on board with them. ”

“ Few words were passed by Ned. He mounted his famous mare “Starlight,” and, followed by Tim, galloped away towards the village of Darlington.
“Tim, are you brave?” said Wildfire Ned, grinning, as they rode along side by side.
“Brave, master Ned, why of course I am. I’d face the very devil if I had any one to back me. I always feel safe when I’m with you.”
“Well, do you know what I’m going to do?”
“No, master.”
“You know Bob Bertram?”
“The old farmer’s son, sir? Yes, sir; and a fine good-hearted young fellow he is as ever was born.” ”

“ I did not take it; but--but I looked for it, and it was gone."
"Gone," echoed Ned, and lay thinking.
"Then it must have been Ted who took it," he murmured, going back into the past. "He must have gone that midsummer night--why, yes! of course----" Then suddenly his dulled mind grasped the whole sequence of events. "He--and Hirsch--that is how he got Aura--my money--damn him!"
"Hush!" came Morris Pugh's voice sternly. "You stand too close to the judgment yourself for curses----"
"I--I will say bless him, if that suits you better," murmured Ned wearily. ”

“ To Ned, obsessed as he was with a feeling of enmity against this man, the words had but one meaning.
“He means to go on with his deadly work!” mused the lad. “He was responsible for the damage to the ship in the first place—he caused her to be disabled and held up in the fog. If it wasn’t for that we’d be on our way now, and the derelict wouldn’t have crashed into us.
“This man is responsible for that, though he may not have known about the derelict. He is responsible for the death of Bob, Jerry and Professor Snodgrass. ”

“ She would drive me down by-and-by on the way to her dressmaker. I have come the moment I was able; have made inquiries, learnt the truth, procured the release of your servant, and given these scoundrels a foretaste of what they are to expect.”
He was amazingly frank and cordial. For a moment Ned was stupefied from any thought of response. He looked into the handsome, intelligent face, and a dull realisation of his own inefficiency as a suitor possessed him. “Would this romantic Fortunatus,” might have been his fancy, “have ever committed himself to a situation so ridiculous as this of mine?” ”

“ They aren’t taking any chances.”
“Well, maybe I’m imagining a whole lot,” admitted Ned. “Only I would like to know who that fellow is, what his game is, and why he seems to have such a grudge against our Professor Snodgrass.”
“Yes, I’d like the answer to those questions myself,” admitted Jerry. “But to get at them I don’t just feel like going to the Sherman’s captain and telling him we suspect the pepper-pot of being a German spy.”
“No,” assented Ned slowly, “I don’t suppose we can do that. But I’m going to keep my eyes open.” ”

“ Quickly he called up his chums by telephone, and when they were assembled at his house, with Mr. Nestor and Mr. Brill in attendance, while Professor Snodgrass hovered in the background, Jerry told them the news.
“That means we’ve got to get started right away,” decided Ned.
[86]
“That’s it,” agreed Jim Nestor. “I know Noddy Nixon of old, and while he may not know just where the nuggets are hidden, he’s got just luck enough to stumble on the trail of some of those grub-stakers, who have a general idea. We’d better get off as soon as we can.” ”

“ Then the boys told of having met the man in the passageway, and of how he turned back at the sight of them, evidently trying to conceal a black object he carried.
Ned told of having smelled what seemed to be a burning fuse; and from there the tale went on to the guarded cabin.
“Hum,” mused Captain Ware, when the boys had finished. “Is that all?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Ned, who had assumed the role of spokesman. “Except that we thought we ought to report it all to you, sir, so you could tell Captain Munson if you thought best to do so.” ”