CHAPTER XXIX
INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS
Excitement was intense among the gold-seekers. They crowded around Mr.Brill, eagerly examining the nugget so strangely found, weighing it intheir hands, and rejoicing over its discovery.
“That’s one of the sixty!” repeated the miner, over and over again.“Now to find the other fifty-nine!”
But this was not going to be so easy as they imagined. Feverishly theysearched among the rocks and dirt, but when darkness finally fell theyhad only recovered eleven of the lumps of gold, some larger, but mostof them smaller than the first one.
“But we’ll get the rest in the morning,” declared Jim Nestor. “The boxthey were in must have upset when it was washed away, and they spilledout.”
This was the explanation accepted by everyone, and, while they weredisappointed in not recovering all the gold at once, they felt thatthey had good chances of ultimate success.
“For it stands to reason,” said Ned, “that the rest of the gold issomewhere around here, and if we trace the course of the flood we’llfind it.”
Jerry and Ned were awakened early the next morning by hearing Bobmoving about the airship. It was so very early that it was scarcelylight, and, for a moment they could not imagine what was going on.
“I say, what’s up, Chunky?” demanded the tall lad, leaning on hiselbow in the comfortable bunk of the aircraft. “It can’t be time forbreakfast; is it?”
“It isn’t light yet,” added Ned. “What’s the matter, Bob? Can’t yourest?”
“I can sleep as good as you fellows,” was the retort, “and I don’t seewhy, every time I move around, you think I have either got to eat ameal, or start cooking one. I’m getting tired of it.”
“I should think you would be, Bob,” commented Jerry, with dry sarcasm.“But, seriously now, what is going on?”
“I’m going to start looking for the rest of the nuggets, that’s all.”
“Why, they won’t run away,” declared Jerry, somewhat astonished at theunusual energy displayed by the stout lad. “Can’t you wait until aftergrub?”
“The quicker we find them the sooner we can start back home,” repliedBob. “That is why I got up so early. I want to begin the search asquick as it’s light enough to see, and it soon will be.”
“You must have some reason for the haste,” put in Ned.
“I have.”
“Can’t you tell us?” urged Jerry.
“No,” and Bob’s voice was a trifle short. “I’m going out to have a lookaround. When you fellows get through snoozing you can come and give mea hand. The professor’s up.”
“Oh, he never sleeps,” commented Ned, with a yawn. “Well, if you getup, Bob, I’m going to have another forty winks,” and he turned over andpulled the blankets around his neck, for it was chilly in the earlymornings.
Ned paid no further attention to his stout chum, but Jerry regarded Bobcuriously as the latter went out of the airship.
“There sure is something up,” decided the tall lad. “I wonder what itis? Chunky has something on his mind, and he doesn’t want to tell whatit is. Maybe he has seen something of our enemies, and he wants tohurry away from here before they get too active. But, in that case, Ishould think he’d tell us. I guess I’ll go out and see what he’s doing.”
Jerry tried to arise and dress quietly, so as not to disturb Ned. Butthe latter’s ears were sharp, and he turned over with a quick:
“Say, have you got the early rising bug, too, Jerry?”
“I thought I’d see what ailed Bob.”
“Nothing, only he’s hungry, I’ll wager, and he doesn’t want to admitit.”
“But he’s out there looking for nuggets, and he didn’t take a bite toeat.”
“He didn’t! Then there sure must be something wrong. I guess I’d betterget up, too; though it’s a shame, for I could have had another nap.It’s early yet,” and Ned glanced reproachfully at his tall chum, andthen at a clock on the wall, its dial faintly illuminated in the lightof the newly-dawning day.
“Nobody’s pulling you out of bed,” retorted Jerry. “But it’s hardlyfair to let Bob do all the hunting alone, even if he did get up of hisown accord.”
The boys dressed silently, not wanting to arouse the others in thecraft, though Professor Snodgrass was already up, as he usually was,before dawn each day, to get insects and bugs that were only abroad atthat early hour.
“Find any, Bob?” sung out Jerry, as he neared his stout chum, who waswalking along, his head bent over, making a course along the recentflood, as nearly as he could trace it.
“Nope,” was the somewhat gloomy response. “There doesn’t seem to be aone. But maybe, now that you fellows have condescended to come out,we may pick up a few. Scatter out a bit, so we won’t go over the sameground twice,” he added, as Ned joined them.
“Look here, Chunky!” exclaimed Ned. “You must have some object ingetting up so early and beginning this search.”
“I have. I want to find the nuggets.”
“I know, but you must have a special reason. What is it? If it’strouble, Jerry and I have a right to know. We’re just as much in thisthing as you are.”
Bob looked cautiously around. No one was in sight save ProfessorSnodgrass, and he was so much engaged in trying to creep upon, andcapture, a specimen of an eight-toed lizard that was trying to get awaythat he had no idea the boys were even up.
“There is a reason,” went on the stout lad. “I want to find the nuggetsas soon as we can, because our food supply is running low, and I knowMr. Brill won’t want to leave here until we get the last of the sixtynuggets. So the quicker we find them the sooner we can leave, and getstocked up again. We can’t get anything to eat here.”
“That’s right,” agreed Ned. “But I had no idea our stock was so low.We must have eaten a lot.”
“You mean _Bob_ must have,” put in Jerry.
“Look here!” cried the stout lad; “I didn’t eat any more than the restof you--that is, not much more,” he added, quickly. “But our food isfast going down. Maybe we didn’t calculate right. Anyhow we’ve beenhere longer than we thought we would. Now I don’t want to starve, so Idecided that I’d put in all the time I could on locating these nuggets.That’s why I got up so early.”
“I knew there was eating in it somewhere or other,” declared Jerry,with a nod of his head.
“Oh, yes, you knew a lot, you did!” retorted Bob. “Always casting it upto me. I wish----”
“Say, cut it out, you fellows,” advised Ned. “If it’s as Chunky says, Idon’t want to waste any time, either. Let’s get busy.”
“I thought you’d get sense,” murmured Bob.
Together they hunted along the course of the flood, separating so asto cover as much ground as possible. But that early-morning search wasunavailing. The light gradually became better, the golden sun, floodingdown into the valley; but even the bright rays did not reveal any ofthe yellow nuggets amid the rocks and stones.
“I guess it’s going to take longer than we thought,” remarked Bob,gloomily.
“Say, just how much longer will our food last?” demanded Jerry.
“Oh, well, maybe a week, or a week and a half,” began Bob, “but----”
“A week!” cried Ned. “And you’ve been throwing this scare into us witha week’s rations on hand! Getting me up, to lose my beauty sleep, andall that!”
“I’d duck him if it wasn’t so far to the water,” groaned Jerry.
“Well, a week’s supply isn’t any too much,” declared Bob, defending hiscourse. “Come on, now. We might as well keep on searching until it’stime for breakfast. It will give us good appetites, and it’s early yet.”
“As if you needed an appetite,” muttered Jerry, as his eyes roved overthe ground.
Professor Snodgrass, giving over his attempt to capture the particularspecimen he was after, came up to where the boys were.
“Have you found anything?” he asked.
; “Nothing in your line, I guess, Professor,” answered Ned. “We werelooking for--Look at that!” he cried quickly. “There may be somethingyou want, Mr. Snodgrass. There! Right between those two black stones!
“It’s some sort of a toad. Wait, I’ll get it for you before it can hopaway,” and Ned was about to plunge his bare hand down in a creviceamong the stones, when the little scientist sprang forward and drewhim back so forcibly that the lad sprawled on the ground.
“What--what’s the matter?” gasped Ned.
“That toad!” cried the scientist. “It’s deadly poisonous. It’s a spinedtoad--not a horned one, though it looks like that species. It’s worsethan a rattlesnake. If you had touched it and it had poisoned you, why,you might have died, though some persons have been known to recover.Never touch one.”
“I--I thought you’d like it for a specimen,” murmured Ned, frightenedby his narrow escape.
“So I would, but it must be handled with a net. I’ll show you. I didn’tmean to pull you back so quickly, but I once had a friend who nearlylost his life because of a sting from one of those creatures, and Ithought you would touch it before I could stop you. Ah, now I have it!”and, with a quick motion of his insect net, the scientist capturedthe ugly-looking creature, which was soon painlessly killed by thecyanide-bottle process.
Then they resumed their search for the nuggets, but by breakfast timethey had found none.
However, after the meal, which Bob looked at as though it might betheir last, they resumed their quest. Eagerly they searched, and beforenoon they were rewarded by locating a few of the precious nuggets. Thenthey became more eager, dividing up the territory so as not to coverthe same ground twice.
So busily were they engaged--even Professor Snodgrass doing his fullshare--that none of them thought to take an occasional observation ofthe distant cliffs. Had they done so, they might have seen severalfigures looking down at them, though for the most part, the figureskept well concealed.
And, had they heard the talk that went on among the spies they wouldhave felt they had good cause for alarm, for one of them was JakePaxton, the man who had been lowered over the cliff.
“I guess there’s no fake about it this time,” said Paxton. “They’re notafter snakes now.”
“I knew they’d look for the gold sooner or later,” declared one of theparty.
“Well, you were right after all, Noddy,” came the retort. “And nowwe’ve got to consider how we can get it away from them. I guess themounted police will be our best play.”
Meanwhile Jerry and his friends were finding nugget after nugget. Theywere considerably scattered by the flood, but once the gold had rolledout of the box, it had sunk, and had not been carried more than acomparatively short distance.
“Well, if we had three more we’d have ’em all,” said Bob, toward theclose of that memorable day. “We have fifty-seven so far.”
“Fifty-eight!” cried Ned quickly, as he stooped and held up another ofthe yellow lumps. “We only need two more.”
“Let’s let them go,” suggested the stout lad. “I’m afraid our grub----”
“Drop that, Chunky!” cried Jerry. “We’ll stay until we get the wholesixty nuggets, if we have to live on half rations!”
Bob groaned, and hastened off to the kitchen to take an account of thefood remaining. He came back, looking rather serious, but said nothing.
“Those two last nuggets aren’t so very large,” suggested Mr. Brill. “Ifyou boys want to go back----”
“We’ll get ’em all!” exclaimed Jerry. “The folks back home expect usto, and we will. Why, there’s no special hurry, and I’m sure we’ll findthem soon. I----”
“Here’s one!” interrupted Jim Nestor, as he located a small lump ofyellow metal, where it had lodged between two stones. “And greatPeter!” he yelled a moment later, “here’s the twin! Hurray, boys! We’vegot ’em all--the whole sixty nuggets of gold!”
“Good!” cried Jerry, while Bob said:
“Now we can go, and we won’t have to starve,” and there was a brighterlook on his face.
It was true enough. A count showed that every one of the sixty nuggetshad been found, and it was good work, considering how scattered theyhad been. But the searchers had certain advantages on their side, andnature, in a way, had aided them.
“Well, I reckon we’ll start for home in the morning,” remarked Bob,a little later that evening, when they were seated about the suppertable. The sixty nuggets were piled in a box in the cabin, where allcould see them, and they glowed richly yellow in the glare of theelectric lights.
“Yes, we’ve gotten all we came for,” spoke Jerry, “and I guess we canleave the valley in the morning. Our quest couldn’t have been any moresuccessful.”
“And I got what I came for!” exclaimed the professor, as he lookedat his luminous snakes. “I wish I could have gotten a yellow jumpingspider,” he went on with a sigh; “but I will look for that next.”
“‘All’s well that ends well,’” quoted Ned. “And now I’m going to turnin--I’m tired.”
It began to rain in the night, and when morning came our friends facedmost disagreeable weather. It was cold, and a strong wind dashed therain against the windows of the motorship. But they did not mind theelements now, for, snugly within the _Comet_, they did not feel theirinclemency.
“Here we go!” cried Jerry, soon after breakfast. “Turn on the gas, Ned,and we’ll go up as a balloon until we get out of this valley. I don’twant any accidents.”
The great motorship arose, and through the mist and rain ascended fromthe valley of the luminous snakes and the sixty nuggets of gold. Thewind increased in violence as they got above the protecting sides ofrock, and when they reached the top of the big gulch the _Comet_ wasfairly heeled over in spite of her powerful propellers.
“Some blow, this!” gasped Jerry, as he labored to shift the rudder.
“Can we weather it?” asked Jim, who was in the pilot house with him.
“Oh, I guess so. But I’ll be glad when it’s over.”
“We’re on the Canadian side,” returned Mr. Nestor, as he looked down,and took note of the landmarks.
“We’ll soon be in our own country,” went on Jerry, “though we couldmake it quicker if this wind wasn’t against us.”
Hardly had he ceased speaking when from below them came several sharpcracks, and at the same time the airship seemed to hesitate andfalter. Then it began to sink slightly.
“What’s the matter?” yelled the miner.
“Something’s wrong with the gas bag!” answered Jerry, who saw by thevapor gauge before him that they were losing buoyancy. Then from theobservation cabin where he had gone, Bob yelled:
“There’s a crowd just below us, and they’re shooting at us, too!They’re aiming at the gas bag!”
“I thought so!” murmured Jerry. The _Comet_ lurched to one side, andsettled more and more.
“Shut off the motor, Ned!” cried the tall lad. “We’ve got to go down!”
They descended gently, in a comparatively level place, and as Jerrycould tell that there were several punctures in the gas bag, heturned off the supply of vapor, and set the pump going that forced itback into the steel container, where it was compressed. The big bagcollapsed into its frame.
They had come down on top of the cliffs surrounding the valley, and,hardly had they settled than a crowd of horsemen rode up, surroundingthem. Jerry saw that one or two wore the uniform of the Canadianmounted police, and, to his surprise, in the throng were Noddy Nixonand Bill Berry, and the man with the scar whom the tall lad had seen inthe railroad station.
“What does this mean?” yelled Jim Nestor, angrily. “Why have you shotat us?”
“To stop you,” replied one of the police. “We are sorry, but it was theonly way. We had to stop you.”
“What for?”
“Because you are taking over the Border gold secured in the Dominion ofCanada, in violation of the international law. You must give up tha
tgold. It belongs to the Crown.”
“It does not! It belongs to me!” yelled Harvey Brill.
“Our information is to the contrary,” spoke the leader of the police.“We regret that we had to fire on your balloon, and are sorry if wedamaged it much. But in a case like this, involving internationalcomplications, it was the only thing to do. We had to stop you beforeyou got over the Border.”
“And who told you this gold was not mine?” asked Mr. Brill.
With a motion the police officer indicated Noddy Nixon.
“I thought so,” murmured Jerry. “Well, we’ll fight this thing out tothe end now. I see his game!”