CHAPTER VIII
SELLING THE LAND
Though Jerry thought it rather strange that the professor and theforeman should be in such close conference, and, though he wonderedvery much what it could be about, his cogitations did not “getanywhere.”
That is, he could formulate no theory that made matters plain to him.He had an idea, once or twice, of speaking of the matter to his chums,but he did not know exactly how to go about it.
Then, too, both Bob and Ned seemed so sure that the professor had cometo the swamp, as he went to other queer places, merely to collectbugs, that it would be hard to make them believe otherwise. Not thatJerry himself was sure of anything else, but he was somewhat given tofancies, and he had some queer ideas in his head just then.
He said nothing, however, and the motor boat chugged her way out of thetortuous channel into the creek, thence to the river, and so to herdock.
“Well, I sure am glad to get out of that place,” observed Ned, lookingat several large and rapidly-swelling mosquito bites on his hands. “Ifwe’d stayed there much longer they’d have eaten us alive.”
“Speaking of eating----” began Bob, with a hopeful expression on hisface.
“Let’s go and have some pie!” mocked Ned. “Go to it, old man! I’m withyou. That swamp air seemed to give me an appetite.”
“All right,” agreed Jerry. “But if you fellows want to eat, why not godown the river a ways, and have some good grub at Fletcher’s?”
“Go ahead,” exclaimed Ned. “Then we won’t have to go home to dinner.”
“I’m with you!” cried Bob. He generally was when the “eats” wereconcerned.
The boat, which had approached the dock, was turned out into the riveragain by Jerry. Then over the water floated a plaintive voice, calling:
“I say, fellows! Hold on! Come back! It’s fearful hot! I want a ride--comeand get me--I’ll stand treat--ice cream--lollypops--lemonade--come onback and take me!”
“It’s Andy Rush!” observed Jerry, not looking around. He knew the voicewell enough.
“Yes, and he’s hopping up and down on the dock,” said Bob.
“Let him hop,” went on Jerry. “He’ll give us all the fidgets on a hotday like this. Let him hop.”
And let him hop they did, much to the disgust of small Andy Rush, whoran back and forth, begging and pleading to be taken for a ride in themotor boat. But our friends had other plans.
They very much enjoyed their dinner at the river-house pavilion, but,through it all, Jerry could not forget the sight of the professor andthe foreman talking about the clay.
“But I guess the plaster company--whatever sort of a concern itis--thinks it can make use of the mud as a sort of by-product,” musedJerry. “Probably there’s so much of it they don’t want to cart it awayunless they can find a use for it. Well, I wish, for mother’s sake, ithad some value; but if it hasn’t--it hasn’t--that’s all.”
“Well, we’d better begin to think of where we’re going for ourvacation,” remarked Ned, a little later, shoving back his chair, forthe meal was finished.
“That’s right,” agreed Bob. “I hope if we go anywhere we have as----”
“Good grub as this--isn’t that what you were going to say, Chunky?”finished Jerry, with a laugh.
“Well, what if it is?” asked the stout lad. “I guess you fellows are asfond of eating as I am, when it comes to that.”
“Sure we are, Bob,” spoke Ned. “Now let’s talk of where we can go.”
“Maybe we’d better wait and see where the professor thinks is the mostlikely place to find the two-tailed lizard,” suggested Jerry. “Itdoesn’t make much difference to us where we go, and it does to him.”
“That’s right,” chimed in Ned. “We’ll have a talk with him.”
But it was some time before the boys had a chance to carry out theirplans, and talk with the professor, for, from the moment they had seenhim in consultation with the foreman in the swamp, there set in such achain of old happenings as the boys had never known. And these took theprofessor out of communication for a considerable period.
“I can’t see what keeps Dr. Snodgrass,” said Mrs. Hopkins to Jerry,some hours after her son, and the other boys, had returned from theriver. “He never stayed out as late as this before.”
“Not unless he was after specimens that fly after dark,” agreed Jerry.
The scientist had not been home all that afternoon. Jerry told ofhaving seen him in the swamp, though they did not stop to speak tohim. Now it was after supper, and dark, and he had not returned to theHopkins home, where he was a guest.
“I wonder if I’d better get the boys and go out after him?” musedJerry. “That swamp is a bad place to be lost in.”
“Oh, I don’t like to think of you going out there at night, Jerry,”objected his mother. “Though of course, if anything were to happen tothe professor, it would be----”
“Here he comes now!” interrupted Jerry, with a note of relief in hisvoice. Steps were heard on the front steps, but they did not proveto be those of the little scientist. Instead they were those of amessenger with a note.
“It’s from the professor!” exclaimed Mrs. Hopkins, as she read it.
“What does he say?” asked Jerry, quickly.
“Why, he isn’t coming home to-night,” answered the widow, some surprisemanifest in her voice. “He is on the track of some insect--he givesthe Latin name of it, but I can’t pronounce it. He’s too far away fromCresville to get back until late, and he doesn’t want to put us out. Hewill stay at a hotel all night, and come here to-morrow or next day.”
“Well, he’s considerate, at all events,” yawned Jerry. “Now that Idon’t have to worry over him I think I’ll go to bed.”
It was not unusual for the scientist to remain away several nights whenhe was on the trail of some rare specimen, and Mrs. Hopkins and her sonwere not alarmed, now that they had received word from him.
“Where did he send that from?” asked Jerry, wondering how long theprofessor had remained in the swamp.
“It’s from the hotel at Bellport,” replied his mother. “He telegraphedhere from there.”
“He must have had a ride in someone’s auto then,” commented the talllad, “for he never could have walked to Bellport from the swamp. That’swhat happened--he got a ride on the road.”
“All his things are here,” said the widow.
“He’s got his net and a specimen box,” commented Jerry. “They’re allthe baggage he needs.”
The professor did not come back the next day, or the next. Instead cameanother note saying he might remain away a week, for he had not yetobtained the specimen he was after.
There was nothing strange in this, for he had done the same thingbefore.
“But if he wants to go with us on a trip he’d better come back prettysoon,” said Bob, one day when he and Ned were calling on Jerry.
“Oh, he’ll be back soon now,” declared the tall lad.
Meanwhile the matter of Mrs. Hopkins’s land came to an issue. TheUniversal Plaster Company served formal notice on her that if shedid not agree to their terms they would drop all negotiations, andher land would be of little value, since there would be no right ofway to reach it. Then, too, their lawyer pointed out, Mrs. Hopkinsdid not have the best title in the world. It was threatened that herclaim could not be substantiated in the highest court, and suit wasthreatened if she did not agree to sell without litigation.
“Why, they’re practically forcing you to sell that land, Mother!” criedJerry.
“I know it, my boy,” answered the widow. “But what can I do? I reallyneed the money from it, though it isn’t so much. I need it at this timeespecially, for some of my securities are so depreciated that it wouldbe folly to sell them. Later on they may increase in value. Meanwhilethe money from the land will tide us over.”
“But, Mother, I have some money from the mine.”
“No, no, Jerry!” she exclaimed, with a gentle smil
e. “I am not so pooras all that. You keep your little fortune. I dare say my affairs willcome out all right after all. I shall sell the swamp land, even thoughthe company is practically, as you say, forcing me to do by threats.”
“If only that yellow clay was of some value,” observed Jerry. “But theprofessor said it was not.” So the swamp land was sold, and ProfessorSnodgrass did not appear.