CHAPTER XVI

A HARD FALL

Jerry Hopkins hardly knew whether or not to be angry at the small lad who had the assurance to stow himself away in the auto. Bob looked at his tall chum as if to shape his own conduct by Jerry’s. Ned was frankly angry.

“Well, you have got nerve, Andy Rush!” exclaimed Ned. “What do you mean by slipping in on us this way; eh? What do you mean?”

“I--er--I, well, I just couldn’t help it,” burst out Andy, who seemed to be in some difficulty as to what to say. “I wanted to come awfully bad, and I was afraid you fellows wouldn’t let me if I asked you.”

“That’s the time you spoke the truth!” muttered Ned. “You sure are right--we wouldn’t have let you.”

“And I thought maybe, if I came along anyhow, and you didn’t find me until you had a good start, you’d let me stay rather than take me home,” finished Andy.

“Take you home!” cried Ned. “Well, you sure have got nerve! Take you home? Well, you’ll go home the best way you can. We’re not going to turn around and take you back to your mother; you can make up your mind to that!”

“You--you won’t leave me here; will you?” faltered Andy, looking around apprehensively, for they were in a rather lonely neighborhood.

“It’s as good a place as any,” grumbled Ned. “Stowaways can’t be choosers.”

Andy looked more frightened than ever. He was only a small chap, and not very robust. His usual vivacious manner, and his rapid style of talking seemed to have deserted him.

“Go on home!” exclaimed Ned. “We don’t want you!”

“Oh, don’t be mean,” urged Bob in a low tone to his chum.

“No, we can’t desert him this way, even if he did sneak in on us,” added Jerry.

Andy took heart from this.

“I--I didn’t mean to do wrong,” he said eagerly. “I’m willing to pay my way. I’ve got ’most five dollars saved up. You can have that!” and he pulled some change from his pocket. “Don’t send me back!” he pleaded. “Let me come along.”

A flicker of a smile lighted Ned’s face. I fancy those of you who know the merchant’s son realize that this harsh attitude was only assumed for the time being. Really Ned was very gentle, and he only spoke that way on the impulse of the moment, and to make Andy feel a proper sorrow for his escapade.

“You will let me stay; won’t you?” the small boy pleaded. “I--I’ll do anything you say. I’ll help a lot--run all your errands for you--I’ll get water for the auto--I’ll pump up the tires--I--I’ll put up the tent, chop wood--whoop! I’ll do _everything_!” And Andy fairly yelled--a return of his usual spirits.

“All right, if you want to work your passage,” agreed Ned, as though a problem were solved. “I’ve no objections, if you’re willing to help out,” and he winked at his chums. “But it won’t be easy,” he warned Andy.

“Oh, I’m not looking for anything easy,” replied Andy quickly. “I’ll do anything you tell me to.”

“All right, then get some wood and make a fire,” ordered Ned. “We want to boil some coffee. Then hand me another of the boxes of the cakes I put away. If it hadn’t been for them we wouldn’t have known where you were. After that you can hunt up a spring and get a pail of water. I guess the auto radiator needs filling; doesn’t it, Jerry?”

“Oh, be a bit easy with him,” pleaded fat Bob, who knew what it was to keep pace with Ned’s demands.

“Keep still! It’ll do him good to hustle,” warned Ned to Chunky, as Andy set off on his first errand, that of getting wood.

“But we don’t need a fire,” objected Jerry. “The coffee is hot in the vacuum bottle.”

“I know it,” laughed Ned, “but Andy ought to do something to work his passage, and that’s the only thing I can think of now. Let him make a fire. And we really ought to put some water in the radiator. Let him go.”

“All right,” agreed the tall lad. “Of course Andy had no right to stow himself away, and he ought to have it rubbed in on him a little. But don’t be too rough with him, Ned.”

“I won’t,” was the promise, but Ned winked at Bob.

If Andy thought he was to have a sinecure on his stolen jaunt with the boys he was sadly mistaken. Ned particularly seemed to “have it in for him” and invented new tasks constantly.

Some of them were errands that really needed to be done, and, to the credit of Andy be it said, he did not once grumble. He might have suspected he was being “worked,” when he was made to wash the few dishes from lunch through two waters, a hasty rinse being all that the boys usually indulged in. But Andy was “game” and the dishes fairly shone when he restored them to the hamper.

But when, as they were traveling slowly along, looking for a good place to camp for the night, Ned looked over, saw one of the tires flat, and ordered Andy to get ready to pump it up, Jerry objected.

“You know he can’t pump it up--he isn’t strong enough,” the tall lad said. “Besides, we have an air pump on the motor.”

“I know, but I just want to see what Andy will say.”

Again the small lad was “game.”

“Where’s the pump?” he asked cheerfully, as the auto stopped. “I’ll have it full of air in a jiffy,” and he seemed ready for the back-breaking work.

“You’re all right!” declared Jerry, with a laugh. “I guess you can belong, Andy. Never mind the hand pump. I’ll soon have the tire fixed. We’ll have to put in a new inner tube, anyhow.”

And, while this was being done Andy explained how, after hearing of the boys’ contemplated trip, he had made up his mind to go with them. He knew his request would, most likely, be refused, so, watching his chance, and being small, he managed to slip under the seat, back of a pile of luggage.

“And I wouldn’t have come out when I did, only I was hungry,” he finished. “I took the cakes because I couldn’t find anything else.”

“Well, since you’re here you might as well stay,” spoke Jerry. “We’ll have to send some word to your folks, though.”

“You needn’t bother,” said Andy coolly. “I told ’em I was coming with you, and they said it would be all right.”

“Well, you have your nerve with you, if nothing else!” exclaimed Ned.

“Yes, and I’ve got my baggage, too!” cried the small lad, as he reached into the cavity where he had made a place for himself and pulled out a small bundle. “I brought some clothes along,” he said.

This took place shortly after Andy’s discovery. Then he had been fed, the trip was resumed, and the puncture discovered. The repaired tire was soon pumped up from the motor, and, after going on a short distance farther a good camping site, near a spring of clear, cold water, was reached.

“We’ll put up the sleeping tent, and use that,” decided Jerry as, with Andy along, there would scarcely have been room in the car.

“And we’ll have a camp fire,” suggested Bob.

“Andy will get the wood,” broke in Ned, with a wink at his chums.

“Sure!” assented the small lad, and, a little later they were eating bacon and eggs, with fragrant coffee, around a merry blaze.

There was no need for haste on the trip, and the boys did not speed their auto. They felt that Professor Snodgrass, even if he were successful in finding the two-tailed lizard, would not return to his home at once. He would, most likely, remain in the mountains in search of other specimens. So the boys took their time. They planned to be two days on the road in the auto, and about as much longer in the boat, though this time could be cut down considerably if there were need for it.

They camped, on the evening of their third day’s auto trip, at the foot of a steep hill, the road having been cut through it, and high banks rising on either side. So far, aside from tire troubles, and once getting stuck in a bog, when they tried a short cut, the journey had not been eventful.

Supper was gotten at a road-side blaze, and the boys were stretched out in lazy comfort on the grass when Bob, who usually showed little desire for unnecessary exercise, scrambled to his feet.

“What’s up?” asked Jerry, looking at his fat chum.

“I thought I saw some sort of a lizard in a hole up on the face of that hill,” responded Bob. “Maybe it’s the two-tailed one the professor wants. If it isn’t it may be some kind of a rare specimen. I’ll see if I can get it for him,” and with that Bob started up the incline.

“Come back--you’ll fall,” cried Ned, for the climb was not an easy one.

“Oh, I can make it,” was the answer. “It’s some sort of a lizard sure enough, but not a two-tailed one,” and Bob pointed to where a wriggling object could be seen. His chums sat up watching him, but they were not prepared for what followed.

Bob reached for a shrub, growing on the side of the hill, intending to pull himself up by it. But, as he grasped it, the shrub pulled loose, and, an instant afterward, the stout lad toppled backward, turning completely over, and rolled to the bottom of the hill. The others could hear his head come in contact with a stone, and then poor Bob rolled into a crumpled heap, and lay motionless.