CHAPTER III

NODDY BEGINS PLOTTING

“Ned, give me a little richer mixture!” cried Jerry, as the motor boat shot down the current, pitching and rolling in the waves caused by the influx of the mill stream. “I need all the power I can get. Cut down the air a bit, and turn on a little more gasolene!”

Ned bent over the carburetor, and adjusted it, while Jerry watched his own steering to see that he did not run the boat into the many floating logs and boards that had been carried into the river by the flood.

“Need any help?” sung out Bob.

“Not up here, but I wish you’d sit on the other side, Chunky,” replied the steersman, giving Bob the nickname that had been applied to him because of his stoutness. “That will trim the boat better, and she’ll ride easier. Professor, would you mind moving up nearer the stern. I want to get the bow as high as I can.”

“Just a moment!” exclaimed the scientist. “I thought I saw a new kind of water spider. Yes, there it is! Hold the boat back a moment, Jerry.”

“Can’t do it!” cried the tall lad. “This current is fierce!”

The professor suddenly made a lunge over the side with outstretched hands, and the boat careened dangerously.

“Look out!” cried Jerry.

“I’ve got him!” answered the professor. “Oh, it’s a fine specimen! I never had one so good. Where’s my spider-box?” and with one hand tightly clasped, holding the water insect, the scientist, with the other, began searching in his pockets for the box to contain his prize.

“I’ll get it for you,” volunteered Bob.

“It’s in my left hand coat pocket,” said the professor.

The insect was soon in captivity and then, as the boat shot ahead under increased power, due to the change in the gasolene mixture, all on board gazed at the floating boathouse, and the unfortunate owner of it, who was still rushing about, unable to do anything to help himself.

“Look!” cried Andy. “It’s going to flop over!”

It did seem as if the structure would turn turtle, but a swirl in the current righted it, and once more it floated on a level keel, so to speak.

“Help! Help!” cried Noddy, waving his hands at the boys in the motor boat.

“We’re coming!” shouted Ned. “Keep cool!”

“Wow! Steady! We’ll save you--don’t jump--it’s all right--not as bad as it might be--hold fast!” excitedly cried Andy Rush.

“Keep still!” ordered Jerry. “You’ll have him jumping overboard next, Andy.”

“All right,” agreed the little lad, sitting down on the cushions, and holding to the rail to keep his nerves in control.

The motor boat was now well down the flooded river, and aided by the current and her engine, was rapidly approaching the floating boathouse. The latter structure was whirling about, careening from side to side, now on one edge of the stream, and now on the other.

“It’ll soon be in the rapids,” spoke Ned in a low voice.

“We’ll get there before that,” said Jerry confidently.

“How you going to get him off?” asked Bob. “Run along side and have him jump, or make fast?”

“I’m certainly not going to make fast to that house,” replied Jerry. “It would pull us over the rocks, I’m afraid. I guess Noddy will have to jump, and swim for it. Then we can pick him up. Ned, stand ready with that life preserver, and see that it’s fast to the rope.”

“Aye, aye, sir!” answered Ned, seaman fashion.

He made ready the cork ring, with its accompanying line, and took his place in the bow, ready to cast it when Jerry should give the word for Noddy to jump. The lad on the boathouse platform was standing, and looking at the approaching motor craft, waving his hands frantically, and occasionally calling for help.

“Why doesn’t he keep still?” spoke Jerry. “We’re coming as fast as we can.”

“Better not go much nearer,” advised Ned. “I can hear the roar of the rapids. They’re just around that turn.”

“I’m going to tell him to jump now,” said Jerry. “He’s a pretty good swimmer, and he can keep afloat until we can pick him up. Get ready with that ring, Ned.”

“All ready!”

Jerry stood up, and, bracing one knee against the wheel, to aid his hands in holding it steady, he shouted:

“Jump, Noddy! Jump! We’ll pick you up! Jump!”

“I--I’m afraid to,” whimpered the bully.

“You’ve got to!” yelled the tall steersman determinedly.

“I--I----” Noddy looked as though he were going to slump down on his knees, but a sudden swirl of the current saved him the necessity of jumping, for he was thrown off the slanting platform into the water.

“There he goes!” cried Bob.

“The ring! The ring! Throw him the ring!” shouted Jerry.

As Noddy went under the swirling waters, Ned leaped out on the bow deck of the boat, with the ring in his hand, watching for the reappearance of the bully.

“There he is!” cried Andy Rush.

With sure aim Ned sent the life preserver toward Noddy. It fell true, almost over his head, and, a moment later, he had grasped it with a desperation born of despair.

“Pull him in!” ordered Jerry, and Ned and Bob began hauling on the line. A few seconds later, half unconscious, pale, and with closed eyes, Noddy was pulled on board.

“He’s dead!” cried Andy.

“Nonsense!” exclaimed Jerry, as he began to turn the boat toward shore. “He wasn’t in the water more than three minutes. He’s fainted, I guess.”

“Better get him to shore as soon as possible,” suggested Professor Snodgrass. “He may have been injured.”

“I’m heading for that dock over there,” remarked Jerry, pointing to one on the Cresville side of the river. “We can lay him out there, and give first aid to the injured, and, if he’s swallowed any water, we can drain it out of him. Keep his head low and his feet high, fellows,” he said to Bob and Ned, who were holding Noddy. The rescued lad had not opened his eyes.

It was a hard fight against the powerful current of the flooded river to gain the dock, but Jerry made it, for the engine of our heroes’ craft was a fine one.

“Get him out now!” cried the tall lad, as he made the boat fast on the lower side of the dock, where the swirl of the river would not affect it. “Use artificial respiration.”

The motor boys knew how to do this, and in a little while they saw that Noddy was breathing more strongly. It developed later that he had been hit on the head by a piece of driftwood, rendering him partly unconscious, so that he swallowed more water than he would ordinarily have done.

“I guess he’s coming around all right now,” said Ned, as he noticed a fluttering of Noddy’s eyelids.

“Here comes Dr. Preston!” added Bob, as he saw a young man, accompanied by a small throng of persons, racing toward the dock. “He’ll know what to do.”

Dr. Preston, who had been summoned by some one of the crowd who had witnessed the rescue, was soon working over Noddy.

“He’s out of danger now, though he’s not fully conscious yet,” said the doctor, after a few minutes. “It’s a wonder he had strength enough to hold on to the ring as you pulled him in.”

“Well, when Noddy gets hold of a thing, he hates to let go,” remarked Ned. “Say, fellows,” he added to his two chums, “a lot has happened since we started to talk about that radium deposit on Snake Island, in the Colorado canyon; hasn’t there?” he asked. “It seems like a week, but it hasn’t been half an hour.”

“That’s right,” agreed Bob. “I want to hear more about that radium. Let’s go back home, and the Professor can tell us. Noddy’s all right now. If we could go to Snake Island and get some radium----”

“Hush!” suddenly exclaimed Jerry, nudging his chum.

“What’s the matter?” demanded the stout youth.

“No use talking about that, where every one can hear you,” went on Jerry in a low voice. “Besides, Noddy is coming to, now. His eyes are open.”

The rescued lad was much better now, and was sitting up, held by the doctor, who was administering a stimulant.

“That’s so, I guess I had better keep quiet,” admitted Bob in a low voice.

Quite a crowd had collected on the dock, and one man, who had a carriage, offered to take Noddy home. This was decided on, and soon, in the care of the physician, the bully was taken away. He had not recovered sufficiently to thank his rescuers, but the motor boys felt that the less they had to do with Noddy the better for them. They had done their duty, and were content to let it go at that.

“Think we can go up against the current?” asked Ned of Jerry.

“I’m not going to try it. The river will soon go down, for the water in the mill pond will all be out by night. We’ll just leave our boat tied up here. No use taking any chances on hitting a floating log, and stoving a hole in the _Dartaway_. We’ll come down and get her to-night.”

The motor boys made their way out of the crowd, from the members of which came murmurs of praise at the plucky act of our heroes. Noddy’s boathouse disappeared around the bend of the stream, and, a little later, was pounded to pieces in the rapids.

The three chums, with the professor and Andy Rush, made their way back to Ned’s house, talking on the way of what had happened.

“Well, it’s all over,” remarked Ned, as they came opposite the broken dam. “See, the pond is almost emptied. They can mend the break now. That was an exciting time while it lasted.”

“That’s right,” agreed the others.

“Let’s get that lunch we were starting on when Andy interrupted us,” suggested Bob.

“Chunky, you’re hopeless!” cried Jerry. “You’d eat if the world was coming to an end, I believe.”

“I would if I had time,” admitted the fat lad. “But there’s no use letting the lunch spoil; is there, Ned?” and he appealed to his other chum.

“No, I guess not,” agreed the merchant’s son. “Come on, Andy, have a bite with us, but don’t you get excited or you may choke on a piece of custard pie.”

“And while we’re eating maybe Professor Snodgrass will tell us more about the radium on Snake Island,” suggested Bob.

“I think I’ve told you all that I know,” replied the scientist, “but you may ask me any questions you like,” and, shortly afterward, while still at the table, the little man was fairly bombarded with inquiries about radium, its general properties, and in particular about the kind that was to be found on Snake Island.

Meanwhile, Noddy was taken home, and nursed. He was weak and ill, but this did not prevent him, as he lay in bed, from doing some hard thinking.

“Radium; that was what those motor boys were talking of,” he murmured to himself, as he felt of the bandage on his head. “Radium on some place in a canyon. Canyon--canyon--Grand Canyon. I wonder where that is? Radium; I know that stuff. It’s worth millions--but that canyon--Oh, I know--the Grand Canyon of the Colorado! That’s it. Snake Island! That must be a place in the river. I wonder if I could find it?”

Noddy dozed off for a moment. Suddenly he sat up in bed.

“I’m going to do it!” he exclaimed. “There’s no reason why they should have it! I’ll get ahead of them! I’ve got as good a right to it as they have!”

He was in deep thought for a minute.

“That college professor knows about it,” he resumed. “And if he knows, other scientists know too. Radium is used in colleges for experiments. I’ll do it! I’ll get Bill Berry, and we’ll find some other college professor, and start after that radium ourselves. I’ll get ahead of the motor boys for once in my life! Radium! It may be worth millions!” and Noddy’s eyes gleamed as he unfolded to himself the plot he was hatching against our heroes.

“I’ll start as soon as I can,” he went on. “It isn’t very far to that Colorado canyon. That’s what I’ll do. Me and Bill will get that radium. I guess I can find Snake Island as well as Jerry, Ned or Bob. They didn’t think I heard them, but I did. I just kept my eyes shut. Oh, I’ll fool ’em!”

And, mean bully that he was, forgetting that the motor boys had saved his life, Noddy Nixon began making plans for going to Snake Island after the deposit of radium, which was worth such a fortune.