CHAPTER IV
AN UNEXPECTED INTERRUPTION
“Say, fellows, it would be worth while going to see how he takes it,”remarked Ned, with a chuckle.
“How who takes it?” inquired Jerry.
“And takes what?--explanation yourself,” put in Bob, as the threechums, and their two Western friends, paused at Jerry’s front gate.“Who are you talking about?”
“Noddy Nixon,” went on Ned, laughing as he gazed down the road wherethe bully and his crony could still be seen trundling his barrow ofdirt. “I’d like to be at the jewelry store when Noddy hears that whathe has isn’t worth a hill of beans,” added Ned. “For of course he’sgoing to have it assayed. Let’s go watch him.”
Ned seemed as if about to start after Noddy, but Jerry, putting out aquick hand, pulled him back.
“No, you don’t!” exclaimed the tall lad. “It might be some sport to seewhat a fuss Noddy’ll put up when he finds out he’s been fooled, butit would only be a passing joke, and, if he saw us standing around,laughing at him, he’d get mad and raise a row. Now we don’t want that.We haven’t had a run-in with him in some time, and there’s no uselooking for trouble. Let’s pass it.”
“Besides,” went on Bob, “we want to hear about the sixty nuggets ofgold. There’s more interest in listening to a yarn about real gold thanin seeing Noddy get fooled over something that isn’t gold; eh, Jerry?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, well, if you’re both against me, of course I’ll have to givein,” sighed Ned; “but I sure would like to see the look on Noddy’sand Bill’s faces when they hear that they’ve been stung. They don’trealize it yet, for they were some distance off when the old gentlemanexplained about it being his watch that caused the lode of gold.”
“That’s right,” put in Mr. Brill. “Curious how I got fooled myself thatsame way. But at least I knew it was gold, and I was so surprised atfinding it in that place that I never stopped to look at the characterof it.”
“Me either,” chimed in Jim Nestor. “But if you boys want to hearthe story I guess Harvey is ready to tell it, and then, if you’reagreeable, we’ll start after the sixty nuggets of gold.”
“Hurray!” yelled Bob. “That’s great! Off for the border and the goldenWest!”
“Hush!” exclaimed Jerry, placing his hand on his chum’s arm.
“What’s the matter?” asked the stout lad, looking around.
“Well, there’s no use informing the whole town about what we may do,”went on Jerry, in a low voice. “Besides----” He paused suddenly, andcontinued--“well, let’s go in and talk it over.”
“Say, there was some other reason why you stopped me,” spoke Bob, as heand the tall lad dropped back of the others. “What was it, Jerry?”
“Well, I didn’t want to mention it before the others, but, just as youspoke, I saw Sim Fletcher walking around the corner, and I’m almostsure he heard what we were talking about.”
“Sim Fletcher--that chap who’s been hanging around with Bill Berrylately?”
“That’s the one.”
“Well, I’m glad you stopped me, then, for I shouldn’t want Sim to knowany of our business any more than I would Bill Berry, or Noddy Nixon.But I guess it’s all right so far; isn’t it? I didn’t let out much.”
“Oh, no. I don’t believe any harm was done,” said Jerry, but, at thesame time he looked closely in the direction where Sim Fletcher hadbeen last seen.
“Well, boys,” began Jim Nestor, when they were all once more seated inthe parlor of Jerry’s home, “I guess we can spin the yarn now withoutbeing interrupted by that fellow who talks like a phonograph going atfull speed. Are you all ready?”
“We sure are!” exclaimed Ned.
“Well, then, in the first place,” went on the Westerner, with a glanceat Harvey Brill, who sat staring about the well-furnished room; “inthe first place let me say that I left your mine in good hands. It’sproducing well, and the ore is just as high grade as ever. But I simplycouldn’t stay there after Harvey told me his story. So I engaged afriend of mine--Jake Masterford--to look after things while I wasaway--and I know Jake’ll do it as well as I could. So you needn’t worryabout the mine.”
“Oh, we aren’t worrying,” said Jerry. “Only it rather surprised us tosee you here East, when we thought you were in Arizona.”
“I don’t blame you a bit,” spoke Jim. “And I’ll tell you how ithappened. One afternoon, following a fine clean-up, and when I hadthe gold safely put away and was wondering what I’d have for supper,there come a cloud of dust up the trail, and I thinks to myself here’ssomeone in a hurry. I unlimbered my shooting iron, having some notionit might be a raid, and I was just going to call to the boys to getready when I seen it was only one man. Then I knew it was all right,but I was sure some surprised when I recognized my old side partner,Harvey Brill, with whom I used to prospect years ago. I seen Harvey wassome excited, and I was, too, when he told me his yarn.
“And here’s where I relinquish the stage and spot light to him,” wenton the mine foreman; “them being the proper terms, as I understand ’em.Now, Harvey, spin your yarn.”
“It won’t take long,” said the man who had brought the news of thesixty nuggets of gold. “To begin with, I’m a miner and prospector, andhave been ever since I was able to handle a pick and shovel.
“I can’t say that I ever had much luck until lately, and then I suredid strike it rich. I’d gone to Helena, Montana, with a party of otherprospectors, and we got so low that we had to be grub-staked. Even thatdidn’t pan out, and then I cut loose from the others and struck off tothe northwest, in the mountains.
“I won’t tell you all the trouble I had, nor what I suffered beforeI made my strike, as it hasn’t much to do with the story. But oneafternoon, when I was plumb discouraged, I happened to dig my pick ina certain place, and when I turned out a stone I saw the yellow gleam.I knew it was gold at once, and I went at the spot like a dog after arabbit.
“Again, to shorten things up, I kept on digging until I turned out justsixty nuggets of gold--some of good size, and some small, but the lotwas easily worth twenty thousand dollars--maybe more.”
“Twenty thousand dollars!” gasped Jerry.
“Whew!” echoed Bob and Ned.
“That’s what,” resumed the miner. “Sixty nuggets of almost pure gold Ifound.”
“And where are they now?” asked Ned.
“That’s the trouble, son,” said the miner. “They’re hid in a place thatI don’t know as we’ll be able to get ’em out of or not.”
“Why?” Jerry wanted to know.
“Because I hid em down in a deep valley, right on the border linebetween Montana and Canada. It’s the hardest valley to get into and outof that I ever saw. There’s only one trail that I know of, and whenI came back on it, after hiding my wealth, a landslide started and Idon’t know as anyone will ever be able to get down into the valleyagain.”
Bob murmured something that sounded like “airship.”
“What’s that?” cried Mr. Brill. “An airship? Well I never----”
“I told you these boys had an airship,” interrupted Jim Nestor. “Ifthat valley’s on top of the ground they can get to it. But go on, letthat part go for now. Tell ’em the rest of the story, and why you hidthe gold.”
“I’ll shorten it a bit,” resumed the prospector. “As soon as I had mynuggets, I found out that I was being watched and trailed by some ofthe grub-stakers I had cut loose from. They were after me, and as theywere desperate men I realized that they would rob me if I started awaywith the nuggets. That’s why I hid my gold.”
“But why couldn’t you get a posse--have the sheriff and some of hisdeputies protect you?” asked Jerry, who thought the man’s explanation abit queer.
“Well, son, I s’pose I could have done that,” said Mr. Brill, slowly;“but I tell you--I’m a peculiar man, and for some years back a hostof poor relations have been depending on me to support ’em. I’m aboutt
ired of it, and now that I have struck it rich, if they heard aboutit, I’d never have any peace. They’d all want to come and live with me,and my sixty nuggets wouldn’t last long with that crowd. So that’s whyI don’t want much of a fuss when I go to claim ’em. I want to dig ’emup nice and quiet like, and enjoy my wealth myself.”
“I don’t blame you,” said Jim.
“But couldn’t you have waited until these grub-stakers had gotten outof the way, and then dug up your gold, and got away with it?” askedBob.
“Son, you don’t know those fellows!” exclaimed the miner. “They’ll hangaround that locality for more’n a year waiting for me to come back andgive ’em a clew. It won’t do. They’re too sharp. I had to come awaywithout the nuggets, and now we’ve got to fool ’em, and get that goldwhen they don’t know it. Besides, it’s going to be some job to get intothat valley I reckon, even with an airship, though I never saw one ofthe contraptions.”
“I guess we can manage that part of it,” said Jerry with a smile, as hethought of their fine craft of the clouds. “But what happened when youfound you were in danger of being robbed?”
“What happened? Why, I made up my mind I needed help, and I at once setout to hike it to my friend Jim Nestor. I knew where he was, havinghad a letter from him. I knew he could advise me. So I left the sixtynuggets of gold hidden near the border, and went for him. Then he----”
“I’ll tell the rest,” interrupted Jim, with a grin. “As soon as I heardHarvey’s story,” the foreman resumed; “I thought of you motor boys atonce. ‘They’re the chaps for us,’ I said. ‘Let’s go East,’ and East wecame and here we are. Now do you boys want to have a try for it?”
“Do we?” cried the three in a chorus, while Jerry added: “We sure do!”
“That’s what!” cried Ned and Bob.
“But do you think you can find this valley again?” asked Jerry.
“I’m sure I can,” said Mr. Brill. “It isn’t easy to locate, but there’sone curious thing about it that I never saw anywhere else, and that isthere are a curious kind of luminous snakes in it--snakes that shine atnight. I never----”
“What’s that?” suddenly interrupted a voice at the parlor door.“Luminous snakes? Snakes that glow with phosphorus? Do you mean that?Oh, my dear man, let me ask you to be careful! Do not, I beg you, donot disappoint me! Luminous snakes! Oh, is the ambition of my life tobe realized?” and there rushed into the room a little man, with a verybald head, and a pair of very large spectacles over his bright eyes. Hestrode up to Mr. Brill, and grasped him by the arm.
“Say that again!” the little man implored. “Tell me about the luminoussnakes!”
“Wha--what--who are you?” asked the miner, shrinking back as though hefeared a lunatic had attacked him.
“Professor Snodgrass!” exclaimed Jerry. “We might know he’d be on handwhen a new kind of bug or reptile was mentioned!”