CHAPTER XXVI
LIVE WIRES
“Where do you think they came from?” asked Ned, when all, including theprofessor, had viewed the snakes through the glass. Literally therewere hundreds, if not thousands, of reptiles.
They were wiggling and squirming, in and out among the rocks andbrushwood, just above the mass of drift débris brought down by theflood. All about, in front of the hut the snakes writhed, seeming to beout of their usual haunts.
“The water must have brought them out from their nests, or dens, orwhatever it is that snakes live in,” decided Bob.
“Do you think so?” asked Jerry, of Professor Snodgrass. “Why wouldwater bring out snakes. I thought they liked heat.”
“They do,” answered the scientist, who was eagerly looking at thesnakes through the glass. “But in this case I think the water broughtthem _down_, instead of bringing them _out_.”
“How do you mean?” asked Ned.
“Why, I think the rising river inundated some place along the canyonwalls, where these snakes lived. They were washed out, carried downstream by the flood, and deposited here--stranded, so to speak. I thinkit has been done often before, in years past, and that is why they callthis Snake Island.”
“I believe you’re right,” agreed Jerry. “And I don’t think the bigstone pile in the middle had anything to do with the name, though itmay look like a snake at times. Probably the Indians, in years past,saw snakes brought down in the flood, and they named the island afterthe 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 onour search for the radium. The river is going down fast.”
“There may be snakes where we were before,” suggested Jerry. “We didn’tlook very closely.”
“Don’t mention it!” cried Ned with a shudder. “Let’s get away fromhere, anyhow. I can’t bear to look at ’em.”
“Um,” spoke the professor musingly. “I think I should like to go downthere.”
“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 theconstrictor 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 betoads, and I might find my two-tailed specimen. Of course if you boysdon’t want to go down you can let me off at some spot where there areno 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 threefigures, each armed with a club, stood in the portal, waving theirhands to our friends in the airship.
“Look!” cried Bob.
“Quick! The glasses!” demanded Jerry, and when he had them he focusedthe binoculars on the trio in the hut on Snake Island. Then the talllad uttered a cry of wonder.
“It’s Noddy Nixon!” gasped Jerry. “Noddy Nixon, and Bill Berry! And theother man is that dishonest professor! How in the world did they getthere?”
“Are you sure it’s them?” asked Bob.
“Sure!” answered Jerry, and, a moment later, the airship havingapproached closer, it could be seen, without the glasses, that those inthe hut were indeed the bully and his cronies.
“Help! Help!” cried Noddy, waving his hands in appeal to the boys whomhe had treated so meanly. “Help, or the snakes will kill us.”
“They’re not poisonous,” shouted the professor. “Go at them with yourclubs.”
“Yes, they are poisonous!” answered Noddy. “There were some jackrabbits washed down with the snakes, and some of the serpents bit ’em.The rabbits died right away. They’re poisonous snakes, all right! Helpus!”
“That makes it different,” said the professor seriously. “I didn’tthink they were poisonous, but they may be. I wonder what we had betterdo?”
“Help! Help!” cried Noddy again. A mass of the serpents seemed to beadvancing toward the hut. Bill Berry threw a stick at them, and thereptiles 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 thisisland. Oh, we’re nearly starved, and if you save us we’ll never botheryou 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’vegot to save ’em; but how? We can’t go down there among all thosesnakes.”
There was a pause, while the airship hovered over the hut on theisland, in the midst of the snakes. The three conspirators eagerlywatched the motor boys.
“Those were the three persons we saw in the boat in the rapids,” saidBob 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. Attachthem to the dynamo, let them dangle down from the airship, and thensail over the mass of serpents. The wires will hit the snakes andelectrocute them. It’s the only way!”
“Then we’ll do it!” cried Jerry. “Come on, boys, and we’ll drop thelive wires, and save Noddy Nixon!” A moment later several coils ofcopper conductors, each one carrying a deadly current, were beingdropped toward the surface of the island.