Noddy Nixon

“ Noddy and some of his cronies started to follow, evidently not liking it in the storm.
“No, you don’t!” cried Jim Nestor, barring the way of all save the police. “You fellows can stay out. Harvey, get busy here. There’s some undesirable citizens trying to get in,” and the two Westerners proved an effectual barrier against the plotters.
Jerry lost little time in telling the story of the search for the gold, adding his suspicions of how Noddy Nixon had followed them, and joined forces with the unscrupulous men who had first tried to take Mr. ”

“ They trailed along after Noddy and the girl, noting that the two seemed to be enjoying themselves. As the couple entered an ice cream store Jerry remarked:
“Well, it’s a free country. He can take out any girl he likes, I suppose, and we haven’t anything to do with her.”
“It makes me mad to see a nice girl like that out with such a fellow as Noddy,” exclaimed Ned.
“Ah, I guess Ned’s lost his heart,” spoke Bob.
“Lost nothing!” sputtered Ned. “But you know what sort of a chap Noddy Nixon is. Would you want him to go out with any girl you knew?” ”

“ Sending the motor boat along slowly, for they were in no especial hurry, the boys discussed the experience through which they had just passed.
“Imagine finding Noddy Nixon there!” exclaimed Bob. “Next thing we know Bill Berry will be showing up.”
“I didn’t see him there,” observed Ned. “He’d probably be among the laborers, if he were there at all. But you wouldn’t catch Noddy soiling his hands in the clay. The job of assistant foreman is about his limit.”
“I’m not so much surprised at seeing him, for the company bought part of his father’s land,” spoke Jerry. “But what gets me is that clay! ”

“ They even helped Professor Snodgrass capture some specimens of a peculiar fly that invaded the car when the train was passing through a wooded section.
“I’m glad we don’t have to worry about Noddy Nixon and those two unlovely specimens that were traveling with him,” observed Bob one day as he and his chums came from the dining car.
“That’s right,” added Ned. “We gave them the slip good and proper. Noddy sure had his nerve with him to follow us and try to get Bill away from us.”
“I’ll say he did!” declared Jerry.
“You fellows don’t ever need to worry about [88] me throwing in with that skunk!” ”

“ We have good reason to. I’d know him and Noddy Nixon, his bosom friend, wherever I met them.”
“Bill Berry, eh,” said Jerry softly. “Well [34] if he and Noddy are in town together it means that some mischief is afoot. They never get together but something happens. We’ll have to be on our guard. They may try to pay us back for getting ahead of them as we did on several occasions. I wonder if Bill and Noddy have met since Noddy came home.”
“What do you suppose he was doing in that boat, if it was the one that floated away from us?” asked Bob. ”

“ Just as the three chums were about to go from their part of the trench to 195 that where Noddy Nixon was stationed, the signal sounded for Ned, Bob, and Jerry to take their places on official duty.
“Too late!” exclaimed Bob. “We can’t reach him now, and he’ll eat it all up.”
“The pig!” muttered Ned.
And they had to let the matter rest there. They could not ask to be relieved from trench sentry work to go and get back, possibly, doughnuts and chocolate stolen by Noddy Nixon. ”

“ Contrary to their expectations, the travelers slept good, the only trouble being the fleas, which were particularly numerous. But by this time they had become somewhat used to this Mexican pest.
While the professor and the boys were taking a well-earned rest, quite a different scene was being enacted by Noddy Nixon and his companions.
Following a half-formed plan he had in mind, Noddy had hung on the trail of the Motor Boys. He had followed them from the inn where they last stopped, and now he was camped out, with his followers, about five miles from the adobe hut. ”

“ Who are you talking about?” demanded Ned.
“Noddy Nixon. He’s going to get an aeroplane and race you fellows—big excitement—going to some balloon meet—whoop!” and Andy hopped up and down on one foot.
“Hump! Noddy must be up to some more of his tricks!” exclaimed Jerry. “Well, if he [53] bothers us as he did once before he’ll get what’s coming to him.”
“I shouldn’t think he’d want to risk any more air flights,” ventured Ned, “especially when he can hardly run his auto.” ”

“ But when I catch that Noddy Nixon—well, he’d better watch his step, that’s all.”
“He’s a coward, and lazy!” declared Ned. “Else he’d rustle his own wood. I had hard work to get that bunch. There was a German sniper who had a pretty fine bead on the place where I saw the sticks, but I went down the trench a way, and began firing at him from there.”
“Did you hit him?” asked Bob eagerly.
“No, I didn’t expect to. But I drew his attention to that particular spot. He thought a sharpshooter was there, and he laid his plans to get him. ”

“ There was barely room for the operator and the motor, and no supplies for a long trip could be carried.
“Well,” remarked Jerry, when he and his chums had spent some time examining the metal “fly,” during which interim Noddy had not shown himself, “well, that’s a queer arrangement, sure enough. I want to see it in motion.”
“Oh, you’ll see it, all right,” declared a young man, whom Noddy had evidently hired to help [33] him. “Professor Nixon will make his first flight Monday, the opening of the carnival. Professor Nixon will challenge all the other inventors to a race.” ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [101] have a better meal than if we ate in the auto; eh, fellows?”
“Say, Chunky, you are the limit!” ”

“ Nixon is in, if you’d like to see him.”
“Never mind,” said the tall lad. “Did Noddy take his airship with him?”
“No, it’s being packed up now. Some men are out in the shed boxing it up. It’s going out to the [92] balloon show I believe. Is there any word you’d like to leave,” she asked, as she saw Jerry turn to go.
Jerry thought there was none, and hurrying to the shed where Bob and Ned were working away over the Comet, he told his chums the news. ”

“ Nixon’s notions, and try to pretend he believes Noddy is a captive.”
“Then what are we to do?” asked Chunky, to whom the events of the last few hours came in bewildering rapidity.
“I think the best thing for us to do is to go [157] camping just as we planned,” said Jerry. “I don’t believe we can do much here, do you Ned?”
“No, I don’t s’pose we can,” replied that youth. “I did want to help dad, but as long as the stuff is gone, and there is some clue to the thieves, I don’t see that I can do any more. I’m for going to camp.”
“Well, let’s go then,” said Bob. ”

“ Major Nixon listened, and as he heard how Pudge 138 sat down upon the surprised eavesdropper whom they had dragged from the locker, he even smiled, for that terrible fear had by now left his soul.
“My word! what great luck that you caught him before he could send any sort of signal to his companions!” he exclaimed. “And we must see to it that he does not have a chance to even wink an eye toward anyone. It would have ruined everything if he had slipped away. I am a thousand times obliged to you, Frank, for being so much on the alert. ”

“ You might not value it as it deserves,” said Robert Nixon. “Thy brother, where is he?”
“He left the camp with a score more of our young braves nearly ten moons ago, to make war on the Crees of the plain, and he has not yet returned. Scouts have been sent out, but no tidings have been received of the party.” The father did not conceal his disappointment. “I have a rich gift to offer him,” he thought; “would that he had been here to have accepted it. Alas! alas! how great is my sin, who was born a Christian, to have allowed my children to grow up ignorant heathens.” ”

“ Nixon, with an exclamation of terror, requests to know what he would have done to him if he had seen him, at which Felix smiling darkly and clenching his right fist, she exclaims, ‘Goodness gracious!’ with a distracted air, and insists upon extorting a promise that he never will on any account do anything so rash, which her dutiful son—it being something more than three years since the offence was committed—reluctantly concedes, and his mother, shaking her head prophetically, fears with a sigh that his spirit will lead him into something violent yet. ”

“ Nixon has a tolerably extensive circle of female acquaintance, being a good-humoured, talkative, bustling little body, and to the unmarried girls among them she is constantly vaunting the virtues of her son, hinting that she will be a very happy person who wins him, but that they must mind their P’s and Q’s, for he is very particular, and terribly severe upon young ladies. ”

“ Once more Robert Nixon turned his back on the abodes of civilised men. Had it not been for the object in view it would have been with a heavy heart. “If Tom and I had remained at school, and laboured on steadily, we might have been like one of those ministers of the Gospel, or settlers, and our children the same, instead of the young savages they now are, ignorant of God and His holy laws.” Thus he mused as he rode along. He and his young companion did not neglect the usual precautions, when they camped at night, to avoid discovery by any wandering natives who might be disposed to molest them. ”

“ I commanded, despite the rebellion in Nixon’s eye. “I will wait in the reception-room till she returns and then tell her at once. She can blame nobody but me, if she is displeased at what she sees.”
Nixon grumbled something and moved off. The girls, full of talk, ran up-stairs to have it out in the nursery with Letty, and I went toward the front. How long I should have to stay there before Mrs. Packard’s return I did not know. She might stay away an hour and she might stay away all day. ”

“ The other belongs to Fletcher Hill—who is my prisoner. Now, boys, you're armed. I'm not. You won't shoot the lady, I know. And for myself I'll take my chance."
"Guess you won't be any the worse for that," grinned Nixon, at his elbow.
Warden's smile gleamed for an instant in answer, but he passed swiftly on. "Did you ever hear of a cattle-thief called Buckskin Bill? He flourished in these parts some five years ago. There was no mine in Barren Valley then. It was just—a smugglers' stronghold."
Some of the men in front of him stirred uneasily. "What's this to do with Fletcher Hill?" asked one. ”

“ His aim was true, and the noble animal fell dead. “He’s gone; not long before me, I guess,” he muttered, as he reloaded his piece. “Those brutes will find me out, there is no doubt about that; but I’ll have a fight first—Rob Nixon will die game.” The old hunter drew a long knife from a sheath at his side, and, deliberately examining its point, placed it on the ground near him while he reloaded his rifle. Thus did the old man prepare for an inevitable and dreadful death, as he believed; yet not a prayer did he offer up, not a thought did he cast at the future. ”

“ But the coward had no weapon. How could he do it? The boy examined the ground about the animal. Several moccasin tracks and the print of pony hoofs told him that Nixon was not alone.
His first impulse was to strike for the ranch and rouse the valley. But his promise to Alta held him from doing anything. He would keep his eyes open and find out for himself what was wrong. The time might come when he could strike. “And if it ever does come,” he said to himself, “I’ll strike hard.{147}”
Chapter XIV
AT THE OLD SHACK CRISP autumn time had come. ”

“ There are a great many passages of this fool-prophet’s life and sayings transmitted in tradition from father to son in this county palatine; as, that when he lived with a farmer before he was taken into Mr. Cholmondeley’s family, he goaded an ox so cruelly that one of the ploughmen threatened to beat him for abusing his master’s beast—Nixon said, “My master’s beast will not be his three days.” A life in an estate dropping in at that time, the lord of the manor took the same ox for a p. ”

“ And I think the only man that can save America at this time is the man that's running for President, on my ticket — Dwight Eisenhower. You say, "Why do I think it is in danger?" And I say, look at the record. Seven years of the Truman-Acheson Administration, and what's happened? Six hundred million people lost to Communists. And a war in Korea in which we have lost 117,000 American casualties, and I say to all of you that a policy that results in the loss of 600 million people to the Communists, and a war that cost us 117,000 American casualties isn't good enough for America. ”