CHAPTER XV

OFF IN THE MOTORSHIP

“Well, Jerry, do you think we can soon give her a trial?” asked Ned.

“Yes, I think we’ll chance it to-morrow, if the weather is good. The winds are pretty high in this region, and I don’t want to run any risks until I know I’ve got the _Comet_ well under control. But I guess we’ll have a trial flight to-morrow.”

It was about a week after their arrival in Kabspell, and the time had been occupied in reassembling their craft. The work had gone on well, and they had not been further annoyed by any visits from the man who so unexpectedly started the motor that day. True, others had sought to gain admission to the shed, but the man on guard had been told to be very strict, and no more strangers had been admitted.

“It’s queer we haven’t run across Noddy Nixon, or Bill Berry, since we arrived,” remarked Bob, as he came from the kitchen of the motorship, where he had been getting the electric stove in readiness for cooking meals when they should be aloft. The craft was still in the shed, but would soon be ready to be wheeled out and sent skyward.

“Maybe he didn’t come here after all,” suggested Ned.

“Oh, I believe he did,” declared Jerry. “Noddy isn’t the kind of a fellow to give up when he sees a chance to annoy us. I believe he found out, in some way, that we were coming here; and he suspects what for. If he hasn’t shown himself it’s because he doesn’t want us to see him.”

“And there are a lot of strangers in town,” went on Bob. “There have been rumors of a rich strike somewhere out this way, and the miners are just pouring into Kabspell.”

“I hope none of my old grub-stakers get here,” spoke Harvey Brill. “I’m not afraid of ’em, but I don’t want to get you boys into trouble if I can help it.”

“Well, we’ll be ready for it if it comes,” said Jerry, confidently. “Once we get off in the _Comet_ they’ll have their own troubles following us.”

They worked hard that day, and spent most of the morning putting the finishing touches to their craft. Professor Snodgrass went about as his fancy dictated, making strange and odd captures at intervals. If he did not find the side-stepping toad at least he was hopeful of soon finding the luminous snakes.

It was not far to the border valley where the boys hoped to locate not only the queer serpents, but also the sixty nuggets of gold. Truth to tell, they were getting anxious for the real search to begin.

The last bolts had been screwed into place, the final adjustments made, the tanks were filled with gasoline, the electrical connections were all made, and the gas machine was in readiness to produce the powerful lifting vapor when needed. The extra mechanics had been paid off, and, true to his prediction, Jerry was ready to give the motorship a trial.

“Where are you going in her?” asked Ned, as he and his chums made some final tests of the mechanism.

“Oh, nowhere in particular. I just thought we’d go up a way, circle about, maybe descend on Flathead Lake and then come back here. We may find she needs a little tuning up. After we give her that we can stock our lockers, and start for the Border.”

“Good!” exclaimed Mr. Brill, and Jim Nestor echoed the words.

A great crowd had assembled, for, somehow, word had gone forth that the motorship was to make a flight. Most of the men--for there were only a few women--were openly incredulous. As the craft was wheeled from the shed a lad in the throng cried:

“Watch ’em sail--not!”

“They’ll never get that off the ground!” declared several.

“That’s right. She’s too heavy. Might as well try to go above the clouds in a wash-tub, or a pair of rubber boots.”

Indeed the _Comet_ did look rather big and heavy, but the crowd did not know the power that lay in the great propellers, or in the lifting gas.

Jerry and his chums went carefully over every bit of machinery. The two Westerners were in their places, a trifle anxious. Professor Snodgrass had been induced to give up his bug-hunting long enough to go aboard for the trial.

The scientist was now in the main cabin, calmly making notes about his captures, as oblivious of his surroundings and the curious throng in the field, as if he was in his library at home.

“All ready?” asked Jerry of Ned, taking his place in the pilot house.

“All ready,” was the low answer.

“Then let her go!”

There was a splutter of sparks, a grinding sound, a series of explosions, and then a whirring noise as the great propeller blades began to revolve, slowly at first and then with a speed that made them mere blurs of light.

The _Comet_ began to move slowly over the smooth ground.

“Ha! Ha!” laughed many in the crowd. “We knew she wouldn’t go up!”

But, hardly had they spoken, when Jerry tilted the elevation rudder. With a sweep and a swoop, the great motorship left the earth, shot over the heads of the crowd--the nearest ones instinctively ducking, though there was no need--and a few seconds later the airship was sailing majestically toward the clouds.

“Hurrah!” cried Bob. “We’re off again!”

For a moment the startled throng was silent, and then, as before their very eyes the seemingly impossible feat had been accomplished, they set up a great cheer, which came faintly to the ears of the motor boys.

“And now for the valley of the sixty nuggets of gold!” exclaimed Mr. Brill, there being none but friends to hear him.

“Not quite yet,” said Jerry, with a smile; “She needs a little adjusting before she answers to her rudders perfectly. But we can do that to-morrow, stock up the next day and set off.”

Before going back to their improvised “hangar,” however, they went out to Flathead Lake, where they settled down to the surface of the water to give the hydroplanes a trial. They worked well, the new one being as good as the others.

Then back again over the heads of the astonished, waiting throng they sailed, to settle down as gracefully as a bird in front of the shed.

“Simon’s grandmother!” gasped one of the formerly skeptical men. “I never thought they could do it! Never!”

While Jerry spent most of the next day in making some necessary changes, his chums saw to the stocking of the craft with food and supplies, for they did not know how long they would be on the Border.

It was quite windy the morning set for the start, but Jerry, after a dubious look at the clouds, decided that they would delay no longer.

“We may strike a calm zone up above,” he said.

The last preparations were made, and with the motor boys and their friends aboard the _Comet_, Jerry gave the word to start. Once more came that nerve-thrilling rush across the ground, and then the quick ascent into the air. Again the crowd cheered, waving their hats and even jumping up and down in an ecstasy of wonder at something they had heard of, but never before seen.

“Well, they’re off, Ike,” remarked a man with a scar on his face, to another man in the crowd. “Now I wonder if we can trail ’em?”

“It isn’t going to be easy on horses, and yet that Nixon chap claims to know about where they’ll head for.”

“Where is he?”

“Oh, he said he wanted to keep under cover,--claimed they’d make trouble if they saw him. He’ll meet us on the main road just outside of town.”

“All right, come on then,” and the man with the scar and his confederate leaped on their horses and galloped off, taking as nearly as they could the course of the airship above them. A little later they were joined by a third person.

Bob, in the kitchen of the aircraft, with nothing to do until it came time to get dinner, took up a pair of field glasses and focussed them on the earth below. They were well away from the crowd now, and Bob caught sight of three figures on horses, seemingly racing below them.

“That’s queer,” he murmured. “It looks as if they were trying to follow us. And--and--why, if that isn’t Noddy Nixon!”

He looked eagerly through the glasses and then called to Jerry, who, setting the automatic steering gear, came back to the galley on a run.

“Isn’t that Noddy?” demanded Bob, in great excitement.

“It sure is,” agreed the tall lad, after a look. “And one of the men is that same chap we saw in the depot--the one I suspected of being a grub-staker! Fellows, we’re being followed! But I don’t believe they can keep it up long!”