CHAPTER XXIV

THE LUMINOUS SNAKES

“Get the guns!”

It was Harvey Brill who exclaimed this, as he darted for the motorship. But Jim Nestor laid a restraining hand on his partner’s arm.

“Now, hold on,” suggested the mine foreman, in easy tones. “This is no time for shooting irons. I’m opposed to ’em on general principles, anyhow. There’s very few times when you need ’em. We can attend to those fellows all right without getting down to desperate measures.”

“But I’m not going to have ’em take that gold from me!” exclaimed the miner, fiercely.

“No danger,” said Jim, easily. “They’re quite a way off, and they’re going to have their own troubles getting down to us. Besides, we haven’t found the gold ourselves yet.”

“Well, maybe that’s so,” admitted the miner, calming down somewhat. “What had we better do?”

“Try and discover exactly what they’re doing,” decided Jerry, promptly. “Ned, get the glasses from the pilot house, and we’ll take a look at ’em!”

In a few moments the tall lad was peering sharply at the party high up on the cliffs. So far away were they that they looked like small children, and only the fact that they did not present the characteristics of Indians led to the assumption that they were Noddy Nixon’s companions and himself.

“It’s them, all right!” announced Jerry, after a moment. “And they’re looking at us with spy glasses. I guess they think they can see us when we find the gold.”

“Well, as long as they don’t come down I won’t worry so much,” spoke Mr. Brill. “But as for finding the gold here we’re not going to do it.”

“Why not?” asked Jerry and Ned together, in alarm. Bob had gone to the airship galley to see about the meal.

“Because, after all, this isn’t the place,” said the miner. “I’ve made a mistake. It was coming down the valley the other way that I spotted the rock that looks like a church, and there I hid the gold. Coming toward this rock from the opposite direction did make it look like the same one. But now, when I get a different view of it, I see that it isn’t the place. We’ll have to hunt again.”

“Then we’ll have to go up to the other end of the valley, and start from there,” decided Jerry. “We can get the right view of the rock then.”

“It’s the only way, I guess,” agreed the miner.

“And there’s no more use digging here,” came from Jim Nestor, as he took up the pick and shovel and started toward the airship. “It’ll fool those fellows,” and he chuckled as he waved his hand toward the group on the cliff above them.

“They seem some put out,” observed Ned, who was looking at Noddy and his cronies through the glasses. “They’re holding a conference, I guess.”

“What about the professor?” asked Mr. Brill, as they all left the big rock. “If we’re going to the other end of the valley do we want to leave him near here?”

“No, we’d better pick him up,” agreed Jerry.

“Let’s have dinner first,” suggested Bob. “I’ve got it almost ready.”

“That’s right, Chunky; don’t let anything interfere with the meals,” laughed Jerry.

Another look at the place on the cliff where the spies had been, showed that they had vanished. Probably they had observed that they were being looked at with glasses, and did not want to betray their movements too much.

“I wonder what they’re up to?” said Ned.

“After the gold, of course,” came from Mr. Brill. “But they’ll have a fight before they get it. I think I saw some of the grub-stakers in the bunch,” he added, for he had gazed long and earnestly at those on the cliff.

“And maybe we’ll have trouble before we get the nuggets,” put in Jim Nestor. “If you can be mistaken once on your landmarks, Harvey, you may be again. And this valley seems to be full of queer-shaped rocks.”

“It is,” assented the miner; “but once we start down it from the other direction I know I can pick out the place where I buried the nuggets. I’ll get ’em!”

“I hope so,” murmured Ned, for he knew his father had placed much confidence in the efforts of himself and his chums.

“Now to pick up the professor,” announced Jerry, when the meal was over, and the airship ready to proceed. A look at the cliff showed no signs of the spies, though all realized that they might be down behind rocks, peering at the gold-seekers, and so hidden as to be out of sight even of the powerful glasses.

The _Comet_ sailed back down the valley, keeping but a short distance above the tallest peaks, or groups of boulders.

“Look for the red flag,” counseled Jerry. “I told the professor to hoist it on a pole to guide us to him.”

“And he’s just as likely to take it and make some sort of snake trap of it, as he is to hoist it,” said Ned. “In fact I doubt if even he remembers to put it up, he’ll be so much taken up with looking for the snakes.”

As they neared the place where they had left the scientist they all looked down for a sight of him, but they saw no red flag, nor did they glimpse the little figure of the collector.

“He must be back of some rocks,” said Bob. They were drifting along now, before a gentle wind, and the motor was shut off. Moving as a balloon, and guided only by the breeze they made not a round.

Suddenly the silence was broken by a cry.

“Help! Help!” shouted a voice. “Help! I’ve got the snakes, but I’m caught and they may get away! Help!”

“The professor!” shouted Ned.

“And a snake has him!” added Bob.

“It can’t be,” declared Harvey Brill. “The luminous snakes are only little things. They couldn’t hurt a cat.”

But again came the cry:

“Help! Help! Help me save the luminous snakes!”

“He must have ’em!” declared Jim Nestor.

The airship drifted around a pile of rocks, and there, lying at full length on the ground, his foot caught under a big stone, was Professor Snodgrass. In either hand he held a wriggling serpent.