CHAPTER XXV

THE HIDDEN MAN

“Someone has attacked him!” cried Ned.

“Maybe it was Noddy Nixon and his crowd,” added Bob. “Quick, Jerry! Let’s help him.”

“I’m getting there as fast as I can,” replied the tall lad. “But I don’t believe any one has attacked him. He’s all alone.”

“He’s hurt, anyhow,” declared Jim Nestor.

“His foot is caught,” added Mr. Brill. “I guess he must have stepped on a loose rock, and it rolled over on him, pinning him fast. I hope his leg isn’t broken.”

“Help! Help!” cried the professor again. “Get the snakes for me! They’re wriggling loose! I can’t hold ’em much longer!”

“They are slippery customers, I guess,” asserted Jim, grimly.

A moment later Jerry brought the airship to a stop, not far from where the scientist was held a prisoner by the stone. All together they leaped out and ran to his relief.

Jerry and Ned started to roll away the stone, while Bob, Jim and Harvey began to lift the professor’s head and shoulders.

“Don’t!” he begged them. “Let me alone. I’m all right. Just take these two luminous snakes from me, and put ’em in a box. There’s another one, and maybe more in a hole back there. I must get them. But don’t mind me. I can wait. Save the snakes!”

“Isn’t he the limit!” exclaimed Jim Nestor, as he turned his attention to the wriggling serpents, which the professor still held--one in each hand. As Mr. Brill had said they were small, and not to be feared unless their bite was poisonous, and this did not seem to be so.

“Put ’em in boxes!” called the professor. “You’ll find some over there,” and he nodded his head toward the left. Jerry saw some of the glass-topped specimen cases which the scientist used, and ran for them.

“Get the snakes, boys!” the tall lad called to Ned and Bob, and, as they had often helped the professor gather other queer prizes, they were not at all squeamish about handling the serpents. Ned got one, and Bob the other, holding them until Jerry came up with the boxes, into which they were thrust, and the covers fastened down.

“Are they safe?” asked Mr. Snodgrass, from his position on the ground, where he was still held by the stone.

“All safe,” replied Jerry, with a smile. “Now will you let us attend to you?”

“I will now--yes,” answered the scientist. “But I’m not hurt. I’m just held fast by the rock. Its weight rests on some other stones, and doesn’t press much on my foot. If you can pry it off I can get up, I think.”

The rock was a large one, and, as Mr. Snodgrass said, was kept from all but a slight contact with his leg by a sort of arch of other loose stones.

“Here’s a big tree branch we can use for a lever,” said Mr. Brill, as he brought the limb up, and stuck one end of it beneath the stone. While he and Jim Nestor pried on it, raising the big boulder, Jerry and his chums assisted the professor to crawl out, and in a few seconds he was free. He could stand up, but when he tried to walk he limped.

“You’ll need some liniment,” was Jerry’s opinion.

“Never mind about me!” exclaimed the collector. “Where are those snakes? We must get the others, too. I saw a lot of ’em here, but most of ’em got away. It was when I made a jump for the two that I slipped, and sent a lot of rocks rolling down the side hill. Then I was caught and pinned fast. But I had hold of the snakes, and I knew you would come along, sometime, and rescue me.”

“You have had a narrow escape,” said Jerry, as he handed his friend the two boxes containing the serpents.

“That’s what he did!” exclaimed Harvey Brill. “That nearly happened to me in the landslide after I had hid the gold. But are you sure you’re all right, Professor?”

“Sure! Of course! Oh, you little beauties!” exclaimed the scientist, as he gazed at the wriggling snakes. “How glad I am that I found you! You’ll be worth hundreds of dollars to the museum, and all the other collectors will envy me. I think I’ll write a book about these snakes,” he went on. “I must stay here a long time, and make a study of them.”

“Well, if you will, you will, I suppose,” laughed Jerry. “But we’ve got to find the gold.”

“Did you get any trace of it?” asked the scientist.

“No, I’m sort of off my bearings,” replied Mr. Brill. “But I’ll soon pick up the trail again. We’re going to start at the other end of the valley.”

“But we might as well wait until to-morrow, for that,” suggested Jerry. “It is late afternoon now, and will be dark soon. Then, too, we can stay here with the professor, and let him study the habits of the snakes. To-morrow will do to start off for the gold again.”

They agreed with him, and the professor, after putting his two latest specimens safely in the airship, began making notes about them, ignoring his slight lameness.

“We must get some more specimens,” he declared. “They are around here.”

“But they don’t seem to be luminous snakes,” objected Bob. “They don’t give off any light, and they look just like some of the snakes back in the East, except that they’re of a different color.”

“They don’t give off any light until night,” explained Mr. Snodgrass; “but I’m sure they are the right kind. Will you help me to get some more?”

Everyone was eager to oblige the scientist, and, after the airship was anchored, they began to search among the rocks for the luminous snakes. They were not easy to locate, however, and several times the boys, in their enthusiasm, made grabs for snakes which the professor laughingly declared were worthless, as far as saving them for museum specimens was concerned.

“You must look at the markings before you pick up the snakes,” he told the lads, and then he described how to detect the luminous snakes from the other specimens. Harvey Brill could tell the queer serpents at a glance, and he was the first to capture one of those that had eluded the professor.

So eager did all become in their strange quest, searching in and out among the rocks, that they did not notice a figure slip over the edge of the precipice that hemmed in the valley, and dangling from the end of a lariat held by a number of men on top of the cliff, slide down to a fairly good foothold. Nor did they notice this same figure creeping and crawling along amid the rocks, keeping out of sight as much as was possible.

Had they observed this figure--a man--they might have recognized him as the same one who had so suddenly changed his destination in the railroad station that day--the man with the scar. But they did not see him, so eager were they to get more snakes for the professor.

And the man who had made the bold and successful attempt to enter the valley, at one of the very few places where such an attempt was feasible, crept on, murmuring to himself:

“At last I’ve got ’em just where I want ’em! They’re in our power now, and as soon as they dig out that gold I’ll signal to the others and we’ll surround ’em. It’s going to be hard work getting down here, though, and I doubt if we can all make it. That Nixon fellow is too big a coward, and so is that Bill Berry, though if it hadn’t been for them I wouldn’t have gotten on the trail so easily. But here they are, and as soon as they have the gold which that fellow hid, well----”

The man did not finish, but, creeping on, was soon so near our party of friends that he could hear their talk. He had managed to keep himself hidden, though probably if Jerry and the others had not been so intent on looking for the snakes they might have seen him.

“We must hurry,” remarked Jerry, after they had found two or three more snakes lurking in crevices of the rocks. “It will soon be dark.”

“I think we have nearly all of them,” spoke Harvey Brill. “There aren’t many more hidden away.”

“Those are the nuggets he hid,” whispered the sneaking man to himself. “I’m glad I waited until they dug them out for us.”

“Here’s another!” suddenly exclaimed Bob, making a dive down in the stones. He was close to the hidden grub-staker, though the stout lad did not know it.

“Oh, I shall be a rich man!” exclaimed the delighted professor. “Every one is a prize!”

“And we’ll be rich when we get ’em away from you,” murmured the hidden man. “Things will soon be coming our way.”

He raised himself up, and took a cautious observation. He saw the boys and men grouped about a small cavern in the rocks--a cavern where most of the luminous snakes had been found. At that moment Jerry made a grab, crying:

“Here’s another!”

“And about the last one,” added the professor. “I think those are all I counted. We have enough, anyhow,” and he took the wriggling snake which Jerry held out to him.

The hidden man saw it. A great change came over his face. It grew red with anger, and then white from disappointment.

“Snakes!” he hoarsely whispered. “Snakes! Great Peter! They’re after snakes and not gold! I’ve been stung! They are with that scientist after all! Snakes! Not gold! Oh, what chumps we are!” and he sank back out of sight as the party turned to go to the airship.