CHAPTER XXV
THE HIDDEN MAN
“Someone has attacked him!” cried Ned.
“Maybe it was Noddy Nixon and his crowd,” added Bob. “Quick, Jerry!Let’s help him.”
“I’m getting there as fast as I can,” replied the tall lad. “But Idon’t believe any one has attacked him. He’s all alone.”
“He’s hurt, anyhow,” declared Jim Nestor.
“His foot is caught,” added Mr. Brill. “I guess he must have stepped ona loose rock, and it rolled over on him, pinning him fast. I hope hisleg isn’t broken.”
“Help! Help!” cried the professor again. “Get the snakes for me!They’re wriggling loose! I can’t hold ’em much longer!”
“They are slippery customers, I guess,” asserted Jim, grimly.
A moment later Jerry brought the airship to a stop, not far from wherethe scientist was held a prisoner by the stone. All together theyleaped out and ran to his relief.
Jerry and Ned started to roll away the stone, while Bob, Jim and Harveybegan to lift the professor’s head and shoulders.
“Don’t!” he begged them. “Let me alone. I’m all right. Just take thesetwo luminous snakes from me, and put ’em in a box. There’s another one,and maybe more in a hole back there. I must get them. But don’t mindme. I can wait. Save the snakes!”
“Isn’t he the limit!” exclaimed Jim Nestor, as he turned his attentionto the wriggling serpents, which the professor still held--one in eachhand. As Mr. Brill had said they were small, and not to be fearedunless their bite was poisonous, and this did not seem to be so.
“Put ’em in boxes!” called the professor. “You’ll find some overthere,” and he nodded his head toward the left. Jerry saw some of theglass-topped specimen cases which the scientist used, and ran for them.
“Get the snakes, boys!” the tall lad called to Ned and Bob, and, asthey had often helped the professor gather other queer prizes, theywere not at all squeamish about handling the serpents. Ned got one, andBob the other, holding them until Jerry came up with the boxes, intowhich they were thrust, and the covers fastened down.
“Are they safe?” asked Mr. Snodgrass, from his position on the ground,where he was still held by the stone.
“All safe,” replied Jerry, with a smile. “Now will you let us attend toyou?”
“I will now--yes,” answered the scientist. “But I’m not hurt. I’m justheld fast by the rock. Its weight rests on some other stones, anddoesn’t press much on my foot. If you can pry it off I can get up, Ithink.”
The rock was a large one, and, as Mr. Snodgrass said, was kept fromall but a slight contact with his leg by a sort of arch of other loosestones.
“Here’s a big tree branch we can use for a lever,” said Mr. Brill, ashe brought the limb up, and stuck one end of it beneath the stone.While he and Jim Nestor pried on it, raising the big boulder, Jerry andhis chums assisted the professor to crawl out, and in a few seconds hewas free. He could stand up, but when he tried to walk he limped.
“You’ll need some liniment,” was Jerry’s opinion.
“Never mind about me!” exclaimed the collector. “Where are thosesnakes? We must get the others, too. I saw a lot of ’em here, but mostof ’em got away. It was when I made a jump for the two that I slipped,and sent a lot of rocks rolling down the side hill. Then I was caughtand pinned fast. But I had hold of the snakes, and I knew you wouldcome along, sometime, and rescue me.”
“You have had a narrow escape,” said Jerry, as he handed his friendthe two boxes containing the serpents.
“That’s what he did!” exclaimed Harvey Brill. “That nearly happened tome in the landslide after I had hid the gold. But are you sure you’reall right, Professor?”
“Sure! Of course! Oh, you little beauties!” exclaimed the scientist,as he gazed at the wriggling snakes. “How glad I am that I found you!You’ll be worth hundreds of dollars to the museum, and all the othercollectors will envy me. I think I’ll write a book about these snakes,”he went on. “I must stay here a long time, and make a study of them.”
“Well, if you will, you will, I suppose,” laughed Jerry. “But we’ve gotto find the gold.”
“Did you get any trace of it?” asked the scientist.
“No, I’m sort of off my bearings,” replied Mr. Brill. “But I’ll soonpick up the trail again. We’re going to start at the other end of thevalley.”
“But we might as well wait until to-morrow, for that,” suggested Jerry.“It is late afternoon now, and will be dark soon. Then, too, we canstay here with the professor, and let him study the habits of thesnakes. To-morrow will do to start off for the gold again.”
They agreed with him, and the professor, after putting his two latestspecimens safely in the airship, began making notes about them,ignoring his slight lameness.
“We must get some more specimens,” he declared. “They are around here.”
“But they don’t seem to be luminous snakes,” objected Bob. “They don’tgive off any light, and they look just like some of the snakes back inthe East, except that they’re of a different color.”
“They don’t give off any light until night,” explained Mr. Snodgrass;“but I’m sure they are the right kind. Will you help me to get somemore?”
Everyone was eager to oblige the scientist, and, after the airship wasanchored, they began to search among the rocks for the luminous snakes.They were not easy to locate, however, and several times the boys, intheir enthusiasm, made grabs for snakes which the professor laughinglydeclared were worthless, as far as saving them for museum specimens wasconcerned.
“You must look at the markings before you pick up the snakes,” he toldthe lads, and then he described how to detect the luminous snakes fromthe other specimens. Harvey Brill could tell the queer serpents at aglance, and he was the first to capture one of those that had eludedthe professor.
So eager did all become in their strange quest, searching in and outamong the rocks, that they did not notice a figure slip over the edgeof the precipice that hemmed in the valley, and dangling from the endof a lariat held by a number of men on top of the cliff, slide down toa fairly good foothold. Nor did they notice this same figure creepingand crawling along amid the rocks, keeping out of sight as much as waspossible.
Had they observed this figure--a man--they might have recognized himas the same one who had so suddenly changed his destination in therailroad station that day--the man with the scar. But they did not seehim, so eager were they to get more snakes for the professor.
And the man who had made the bold and successful attempt to enterthe valley, at one of the very few places where such an attempt wasfeasible, crept on, murmuring to himself:
“At last I’ve got ’em just where I want ’em! They’re in our powernow, and as soon as they dig out that gold I’ll signal to the othersand we’ll surround ’em. It’s going to be hard work getting down here,though, and I doubt if we can all make it. That Nixon fellow is too biga coward, and so is that Bill Berry, though if it hadn’t been for themI wouldn’t have gotten on the trail so easily. But here they are, andas soon as they have the gold which that fellow hid, well----”
The man did not finish, but, creeping on, was soon so near our party offriends that he could hear their talk. He had managed to keep himselfhidden, though probably if Jerry and the others had not been so intenton looking for the snakes they might have seen him.
“We must hurry,” remarked Jerry, after they had found two or three moresnakes lurking in crevices of the rocks. “It will soon be dark.”
“I think we have nearly all of them,” spoke Harvey Brill. “There aren’tmany more hidden away.”
“Those are the nuggets he hid,” whispered the sneaking man to himself.“I’m glad I waited until they dug them out for us.”
“Here’s another!” suddenly exclaimed Bob, making a dive down in thestones. He was close to the hidden grub-staker, though the stout laddid not know it.
“Oh, I shall be a rich ma
n!” exclaimed the delighted professor. “Everyone is a prize!”
“And we’ll be rich when we get ’em away from you,” murmured the hiddenman. “Things will soon be coming our way.”
He raised himself up, and took a cautious observation. He saw the boysand men grouped about a small cavern in the rocks--a cavern where mostof the luminous snakes had been found. At that moment Jerry made agrab, crying:
“Here’s another!”
“And about the last one,” added the professor. “I think those are all Icounted. We have enough, anyhow,” and he took the wriggling snake whichJerry held out to him.
The hidden man saw it. A great change came over his face. It grew redwith anger, and then white from disappointment.
“Snakes!” he hoarsely whispered. “Snakes! Great Peter! They’re aftersnakes and not gold! I’ve been stung! They are with that scientistafter all! Snakes! Not gold! Oh, what chumps we are!” and he sank backout of sight as the party turned to go to the airship.