CHAPTER XXVI
THE EMPTY POCKET
“Well, part of our quest is finished, anyhow,” remarked Ned to Jerry,as they entered the _Comet_. “We’ve got the snakes. Maybe we’ll get thegold.”
“Of course we’ll get it,” exclaimed Harvey Brill, with decision. “Doyou think I’m going to let your folks lose their money? I guess not!I’ll get the gold I hid, or I’ll find some more. I want to complete thedeal on that mine, and I can’t do it unless I get those sixty nuggets.Oh, I’ll find ’em all right, as soon as we start to come up the valleyfrom the other end, so I can pick out my landmark.”
“I hope so,” murmured Jerry, for he, as did the others, wanted “to makegood.”
“Yes, we got the snakes, and maybe we’ll get the gold,” said Bob,as he went to the kitchen to see about preparing the evening meal.“But I don’t believe those serpents are luminous.” He had glancedat them on his way from the main cabin, where Professor Snodgrasswas enthusiastically making notes about his latest prizes. “If theydon’t shine to-night,” went on Bob, “Mr. Snodgrass will surely bedisappointed. But I hope he isn’t.”
Could the hidden man have heard what our friends said, about not havingfound the gold, he might not have felt so chagrined as he got readyto rejoin his companions on the cliffs. But he had only overheard thetalk about snakes, and had seen the boys and the men hunting for theserpents. He had not heard gold mentioned.
“This sure is the limit!” he muttered, as he crawled away from hishiding place, now that the coast was clear, the party being in theairship.
“Here I go and follow these fellows on a hard trail, thinking they’reafter gold, and it turns out to be snakes! I get ’em to lower me overthe cliff, and ’most break my neck, all for the pleasure of seein’’em catch snakes. Bah! I’m a fine one, I am, and it’s all that Nixonfellow’s fault! I’ll settle with him! He said they were after gold,and it’s snakes! Wow! Snakes! I’ll be the laughing stock of all thegrub-stakers along the Border. There’s been a slip-up somewhere, and Ican’t tell where it is. Yet I was sure that one of those fellows wasthe one who was said to have hidden the gold. But it was snakes! Bah!Snakes! This is the limit!”
He made his way through the gathering darkness to where his partyanxiously awaited him. It was hard work hauling him up by means of thelariat, and once he slipped, severely hurting his back.
“Did you get a trace of it?” eagerly demanded Noddy Nixon, who was oneof the throng on the cliff.
“Was all the gold hidden where we saw ’em digging?” asked Bill Berry.
“Say! Don’t talk to me!” sullenly replied the man, as he limped along.“This has been a fizzle, and it’s all your fault!” he added, turning toNoddy. “Don’t talk to me! And don’t you dare say snakes or gold!”
By degrees, however, the disappointed party got the truth from him, andmany were the expressions of anger against Noddy. And yet he was notso much to blame. Though he had managed to spy and eavesdrop enoughto learn that Jerry and the others were after gold, and though he hadmanaged to trace the course of the airship sufficiently to pick out thelocation of the valley after a long trip on a lonely trail, still someof the others had before this tried to rob Harvey Brill, and they hadbeen as eager as was Noddy to take up the mean work again.
“Huh! Snakes!” exclaimed Jake Paxton, the man who had gone down inthe gulch, as he and the others moved away from the top of the cliffin the darkness. “Now we’ve got it all to do over again, for I’m suresomeone has hidden gold in that valley, and I’m going to get it. We’lljust stay here a spell yet.”
In the airship there was rejoicing mingled with uncertainty. Theprofessor was glad because he had found the snakes, but the otherswere a bit uncertain in regarding to finding the sixty nuggets, thoughHarvey Brill was positive that his quest would be successful.
“Of course the landslide mixed things up,” he explained; “and it isn’tgoing to be as easy to find the place as I thought. But I’ll do it!”
“Supper!” announced Bob, at this juncture, and for once no one jokedabout his fondness for always having something to do with eating. Theywere all hungry.
“Where’s the professor?” asked Jerry, as they filed out into the diningcabin. “He must be----”
“Boys! Boys!” suddenly called the scientist. “Come here--quick!”
“Trouble again!” cried Ned, as he made a rush for the professor’scabin, whence came his voice.
“Those snakes!” murmured Jerry. “Maybe, after all, they are poisonous!”
“Quick! Quick!” yelled the professor, and, as they reached him,breathless, Jerry asked:
“What is it; are you hurt?”
“Hurt? No!” exclaimed the little scientist, and there was triumph inhis tones. “Look!”
He pointed to a small box on his table, and from it came a subduedglow, as though a whole box of the old-fashioned sulphur matches hadbeen dampened.
“The luminous snakes!” exclaimed Professor Snodgrass. “See them shinewith light! They are the true _illustris serpensus_! I am a mostfortunate man! My name will be engraven on the roll of fame! For yearsI have sought these snakes, and now I have some! Oh, my college will beproud of me!”
“By Jove!” exclaimed Ned. “They do shine!”
There was no doubt of it. The professor had only one light dimly goingin his cabin, and now he switched this off. The glow from the box ofsnakes increased, until it made the room light enough to distinguishfaces.
“What makes it?” asked Jerry.
“The same sort of matter that causes the lightning bugs to glow,”explained the professor. “Under the skin of the snake is a certainmaterial, mixed in with the color pigments, and that becomes excited bythe nerve cells acting on the circulatory system. In fact----”
“Well, anyhow, they shine!” interrupted Ned, with a laugh, forsometimes the professor got on one of his long scientific explanations,and hardly knew when to stop, he grew so enthusiastic about it.
“Yes, they shine!” exclaimed Mr. Snodgrass. “My search has beensuccessful.”
“And I hope ours will be,” remarked Jerry, as they went to rather alate supper.
They made an early start the next morning, heading the airship forthe farther end of the valley, intending, on reaching it, to turn andcome back, so that Mr. Brill could pick out the stone that resembled achurch--the stone that served as a landmark for the hiding place of thegold. The going trip was quickly made, but, though they kept a lookoutfor the stone, no one saw it.
“I don’t believe we could pick it out going this way,” explained theprospector. “But it will show soon enough when we head back the otherway, and get near it.”
As Mr. Brill was fairly sure that he had hidden the gold some distancefrom the lower end of the valley, little time was spent there, oncethey had begun the return trip.
It was about noon, and Bob was just thinking of getting dinner, whenMr. Brill, who was in the pilot house with Jerry, remarked:
“Go slow, now. I think it’s somewhere around here.”
The _Comet’s_ speed was reduced, and a little later, as they swung overa pile of fantastically heaped-up rocks, the prospector cried:
“There it is! There is the stone near where I hid the gold! Let’s getout and hunt for it!”
He pointed to a mass of rock that did bear a close resemblance to achurch, steeple and all. It was a much more realistic resemblance thanthe other had been.
“That’s her all right!” asserted Mr. Brill. “Things have changedconsiderable though, since I hid the gold, but I guess that’s onaccount of the landslide. But there’s the pocket all right, where Iput the nuggets,” and, as they had all gotten out of the airship, hepointed to a crevice near the great stone--a fissure in the side of thevalley partly filled with rocks.
“The gold is there!” cried Harvey Brill, pointing with a shaking hand.“I took it out of the sacks, and put it in there in a wooden box.”
Jim Nestor had brought a pick, and he now attacked
the loose stoneswith vigor. A few minutes sufficed to clear out the fissure, or pocket,where Mr. Brill had deposited the nuggets.
“Why--why--it’s empty!” gasped the mine foreman, as he got to thebottom. “There isn’t any gold here, Harvey! And no box, either!”
“No gold there!” cried the prospector, aghast.
“Not a nugget! The pocket is empty!”