CHAPTER VII
THE STOWAWAY
“Like old times, isn’t it?” suggested Ned, who sat beside Jerry.
“It sure is,” agreed the tall lad. “After all, in spite of the factthat we’ve had some cracking good times in our motor boat, and in theairship above the clouds, there’s nothing like a good car for a change.She has great pulling power,” he added, nodding toward the hood of theautomobile, where the powerful engine was chugging away. “Watch hertake this hill on high,” he went on.
“She’ll never do it,” Ned retorted.
“Watch,” said Jerry, and he steered the machine up an incline on themain highway that led out of Cresville.
“She’s doing it!” commented Bob, who was in a rear seat.
“I take my hat off to you, Jerry,” admitted Ned, as the crest of thehill was reached. “You certainly know how to work her.”
“It’s all in the motor,” said the tall lad. “Having her gone over, andthe valves reground, was just what she needed.”
“Well, we’ll need all the power we can crowd into her before we getto the end of this trip,” declared Bob. “We’ve never made such a longjourney in this big car before.”
“That’s right,” assented Jerry. “But she’ll do it. And say, maybe wewon’t have good times when we get out to the ranch! Your father saysthere are big level stretches of country there, Ned, just the place forstarting and landing our airship.”
“Fine!” cried Ned. “We’ll whoop things up when we get out among thecowboys.”
“They may whoop things up for us,” commented Jerry.
“What do you mean?” asked Bob.
“Oh, nothing, only you know they may class us as tenderfeet, and startto put a few tricks over on us.”
“I’d like to see ’em try it!” blustered the stout lad. “This isn’t ourfirst trip West.”
“No, but they don’t know that,” laughed Jerry. “However, there’s no usecrossing a bird in the hand until the well runs dry,” and with thismisquoting of proverbs the tall steersman gave his attention to thebusiness before him, which, at that particular moment, consisted inpassing a heavily-laden truck at a narrow place in the road.
“Watch your step,” warned Ned.
Jerry nodded his head, but did not answer.
“Better give him a blast, hadn’t you?” suggested Bob. “He’s one ofthose road hogs, I guess, and there’s a bad dip on the side where wehave to pass. Give him a toot.”
Jerry stretched his hand out and pressed the button of the electrichorn. Its screeching tone filled the air but the driver of the bigauto-truck ahead gave no sign of heeding. His machine chugged on itsway.
“He isn’t going to give over,” said Ned in a low voice.
“Guess I’ll have to brush by,” came from the tall lad. “Hold fasteverybody!”
With that Jerry pressed down on the accelerator pedal. There was athrobbing burst of speed as the motor took the increased flow of gas.Then Jerry opened the muffler and a sound ensued that was like a smallGatling gun in action. At the same instant, with a great burst ofspeed, the big car fairly shot past the offending truck, Jerry withsteady eyes and hands guiding her neatly. There was, indeed, but barelyroom to pass, and it was such a close shave that there was but a baresix inches between the left wheels of the boys’ machine and the edge ofthe road which, at this point fell away in a sharp decline.
But Jerry did it, and as he passed the truck the rear luggage carrieron the touring car brushed the mud guards of the other vehicle. At thesame instant Jerry gave a screech on the electric horn, and he and hischums as they rushed past gave a wild yell.
They had a glance of the startled face of the driver who must havethought a runaway locomotive had nearly run him down, for he swervedover to the right so suddenly that his wheels skidded and he had to jamon the brakes to avoid danger.
“Serves him right!” commented Ned. “Next time he’ll use only his halfof the road. Good work, Jerry.”
The tall lad nodded grimly and then slowed down the pace. The boys werewell out of Cresville now.
“Are we going to stop anywhere?” asked Bob, after a period of talk andspeculation on what would happen when they reached the ranch.
“For what?” asked Ned. “Of course we’ve got to stop some time, butwe’ve just got started.”
“I guess he means stop to eat,” chuckled Jerry.
“Huh! That’s where you’re away off!” laughed the stout lad. “We don’tneed to stop to eat. I’ve got the little refrigerator well filled andthere’s lots of other stuff, too. We can keep right on going and eat aswe go. I’ll hand you fellows out something now if you want it,” he wenton, and there was a trace of eagerness in his voice.
“That’s one thought for us and two for himself!” chuckled Jerry. “Iguess he’s hungry again, though how he manages always to keep up anappetite gets me. His system would be worth a fortune to a doctorthat had to give his patients a tonic to make them eat. Give us thecombination, Bob!”
“I’ll give you a sandwich,” was the retort, and the fleshy youth begandelving around in the rear of the car--that portion given over to thestowage of cots and other necessaries used when they camped out for thenight.
“Hum! This is funny!” exclaimed Bob a moment later.
“What is?” Ned queried.
“Why, I put a package of sandwiches--some chicken ones mother made--andsome of her dandy cookies back here just before we started, but I can’tfind it now. You fellows haven’t been grubbing in here, have you?” heasked.
“Nary a grub,” declared Jerry. “Guess you ate ’em yourself, Bob, andforgot about it.”
“I did not! But I’ll take another look and--double-jointed mudturtles!” he cried a second later, while he tumbled backward into therear seat he had left to delve in the after-part of the car.
“What’s the matter?” demanded Ned and Jerry, together.
“Something--or somebody’s--back there!” Bob sputtered.
“Somebody?” repeated Jerry.
“Back where?” Ned questioned.
“Back in there among the bunks,” was the answer. “I--I put my hand on aface.”
“A face!” cried Jerry. “What in the world is he talking about? Did thatchocolate go to your head, Bob?”
“It was a face!” insisted the stout lad. “I--I felt the nose and--andspectacles. It was warm and soft and--and----”
At that moment there was a movement in the rear of the car, inthe space behind the seats. Something--or somebody to be morecorrect--arose and started forward. The boys had a glimpse of aface--the face with a nose as Bob had described it.
And then, as Jerry brought the car to a sudden stop, with anapplication of the screeching brakes, the boys, looking back, cried inunison:
“Professor Snodgrass!”
“At your service!” beamed the little scientist as he yawned and rubbedhis eyes. “I must have fallen asleep,” he added, casually.
“Fallen asleep!” repeated Jerry, wonderingly.
“Where did you come from?” asked Bob.
“And how did you get there?” Ned cried.
“Well, I believe an explanation is due you,” said the professor in hisgentle, classroom voice. “You remember inviting me to go with you onthis trip, I suppose?” he continued, and it was exactly as though hewas about to explain something difficult in a scientific way.
“Sure, I asked you to come with us,” admitted Jerry. “And when youdidn’t show up we left word for you to follow us to Wyoming. But we’reglad you’re with us now. Only----”
“No doubt my presence here is puzzling,” went on the bald-headedcollector of bugs. “But this morning, when I awakened, I had a verysevere headache. I sometimes get them when I mix the chemicals withwhich I preserve my specimens. I have a headache remedy I use on suchoccasions, but I must have taken a little too much this time, for whenI reached here I felt so weak and faint that I was not able to go intoyour house.
“Then, too, I
did not want to alarm your good mother, Ned. So, as Isaw the auto here, and knew from past experience that there were cotsin it, I thought it would be a good plan to go in and lie down until Ifelt better.
“I did so. The medicine stopped my headache, but it evidently threw meinto a heavy sleep, for I did not realize anything until just now whenI felt something fluttering over my face. I fancied it was a moth I wastrying to catch.”
“That was me, feeling around for the sandwiches,” explained Bob, witha laugh. “I touched your face and it startled me.”
“Oh, sandwiches!” exclaimed the professor understandingly. “Some sortof package fell to the floor of the car when I stretched out here.I was too tired to see what it was. Perhaps that was what you werelooking for.”
It proved to be, and the boys and the professor were soon eatingsociably together, while Bob suggested that if the sandwiches were notsufficient there was a hotel a short distance ahead where they couldstop.
“The professor might want to get something else for his headache,”suggested the stout lad.
“Oh, no, thank you. It is quite cured I am glad to say,” remarked thescientist.
“That fact won’t prevent Bob from wanting to stop at the hotel,”laughed Jerry, and it did not. In fact, the sandwiches were none toosatisfying for the hungry youths, and even Jerry admitted that theprospect of a hotel meal was not displeasing. So they stopped, much toBob’s delight.