CHAPTER V

NODDY NIXON THREATENS

Professor Snodgrass continued to gaze steadfastly at the astonished miner, still keeping hold of his coat. Then over the face of the little bald-headed scientist there came a change. Into his eyes there shot a gleam of joy.

“Stand still!” he commanded, though Mr. Brill was too much startled to do anything in the line of motion. “Don’t stir!” went on the professor. “I’ll have him in a minute. It’s on your neck! Oh, if only it doesn’t hop off! Easy now! There! I have it!” and with a quick motion he removed some insect from the coat collar of the miner. The latter moved quickly back and seemed about to bolt from the room.

“Wha--what am I up against?” he asked. “Is he crazy--or am I? What is he after, anyhow? Have I got bugs on me?”

“You did have, my dear man,” said the professor, calmly, as he took out a small box, with a glass top, under which he imprisoned his prize. “You were carrying about with you a very rare specimen of a jumping fly--something I have been hoping to capture for years. Now I have the little beauty. Oh, you can’t get away!” he added, as the insect leaped against the glass. “I have you safe.”

“Is--er--am I--what’s it all about, anyhow?” cried the miner, looking from one to the other.

“It’s all right, Harvey--it’s all right,” said Jim Nestor soothingly, for he knew the professor of old. “Mr. Snodgrass collects bugs and things for scientific purposes. He just found one on you, that’s all.”

“A jumping fly--_excilio muscarium_--it might be Latinized,” explained the scientist. “A very rare specimen. I am exceedingly obliged to you.”

“Oh--Oh, you--you’re welcome,” stammered Mr. Brill. “I hope I haven’t any more things on me,” and he looked himself over as well as he could.

“No more,” said the professor, aiding in the search. “I wish you had. But what is this I heard about the luminous snakes?” he asked. “Snakes that shine at night--_illustris serpensus_ as they could be called. Many years have I longed to get such a specimen, and now, unexpectedly, I get on the track.

“I might explain,” he went on, turning to the boys, “that I have been sent out by a Boston museum to look for a new kind of blue lizard, but I can combine my search for that with the luminous snakes--the latter being much more valuable. I came to Cresville, thinking perhaps you boys might be going off on some expedition, as you frequently are, and I proposed to join you to look for the blue lizard. I came directly to your house, Jerry, since your mother has been so kind as to give me a standing invitation, and, just as I enter I hear--‘luminous snakes!’ Oh, how I rejoiced! This has indeed been a fortunate day for me!” and he looked at the jumping fly in his little box.

Mr. Brill was less excited now, since Jim Nestor had, in a whisper, explained more about the talented and kind professor, whose only hobby was bugs and reptiles.

“Tell me more about the snakes,” urged the scientist.

“They were only casually mentioned,” said Jerry, and briefly he related what is already known to my readers about the visit East of the two Westerners, and the curious train of events that had followed.

“And are you going after the sixty nuggets of gold?” asked the professor, eagerly.

“We hope to,” spoke Bob, while the chums nodded.

“Then may I go along to look for the luminous serpents?”

“Of course!” exclaimed Jerry. “But we’ll have to put this up to the folks,” he added to his chums. “I hope my mother will let us go, and----”

“Oh, I’m sure my folks won’t object,” said Bob, while Ned nodded to show that he, too, thought he could easily gain the necessary consent.

“Then the thing to do is to tell them about it,” went on Jerry. “Professor, you know where your room is--the same one you always have. Jim, I’m going to put you and Mr. Brill up here, and maybe----”

“We were calculating on going to a hotel,” said the mine foreman. “We’re not exactly used to plush carpets on the floor, and all that sort of thing.”

“Oh shucks!” exclaimed Jerry. “You’ll stay here. Besides, I think the hotel is over-crowded, anyhow. We’ve got lots of room. I’ll bring mother in and introduce you to her, and then we’ll leave you for a while. Dinner will soon be ready.”

“Dinner!” exclaimed Mr. Brill. “Why it’s long past noon. Besides we had a snack on the train--me and Jim.”

“We call supper dinner here,” explained Jerry, with a laugh. “There’s no sense in it, as far as I can see, but we always have dinner at night.”

“And breakfast at noon?” asked Mr. Brill.

“No, that goes by its regular name, but the noon meal is lunch, here in the East.”

“I don’t care what they call ’em, as long as there’s something to eat,” said Bob, with a sigh, at which they all laughed.

Mrs. Hopkins came in, and soon made the two miners feel at home. They were shown to their rooms, and the professor to his.

“Well, Jerry, what is it this time?” asked his mother, with a smile.

“Sixty nuggets of gold, and some luminous snakes!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, what boys!” cried Mrs. Hopkins. “There, I’m not going to listen to a thing about it now. I’ve got to see about dinner.”

“Then we’ll talk it over at the table,” proposed Jerry, as his mother hurried away to look to the comfort of her unexpected guests. “For we’re bound to go.”

“That’s right,” exclaimed Bob.

“Now, fellows, I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” suggested Jerry. “We’ll go to the station and get the baggage of the two miners, and then it will be nearly dinner time. My! how this day has passed! Come on, we’ll run down in the car.”

As they were about to enter it there was a rush of feet down the street, and a shrill voice burst out with:

“You’d better look out--he’s awful mad--says he’s going to fix you--blow up the place--have you arrested--sent to jail--he’s raving--completely fooled--you’ll soon see him--Oh my! wow!”

“What’s the matter now, Andy?” asked Jerry, turning to see the little chap panting from a run, and from his flow of words. “Is it a mad dog, or a runaway horse?”

“It’s Noddy Nixon!” gasped Andy. “He--he----” but words failed him, and he could only make motions with his lips.

“Oh, Noddy!” exclaimed Jerry. “Here, Andy, hop in and we’ll see if we can’t catch your breath for you,” and he cranked the car while the others took their seats.

They had not progressed far down the street before, near the jewelry store toward which he had gone, they saw Noddy Nixon. Beside him was Bill Berry, wheeling a barrow load of dirt, and the looks on the faces of the two showed anger and disappointment.

“Slow up, Jerry,” said Ned, in a low voice, and the tall lad did so.

Noddy Nixon, catching sight of them, said something to Bill, who stopped. Then the bully, shaking his fist at the three chums, exclaimed:

“I’ll fix you for this, all right!”

“Fix us for what?” asked Jerry, innocently.

“For playing that trick on me. You knew there wasn’t any gold there, but you pretended there was, and I dug up a whole lot of worthless dirt. Bah! I’ll fix you for it!”

“Wasn’t there any gold in your dirt, Noddy?” asked Ned, smiling.

“No, and you know there wasn’t!” snapped the bully. “You made me and Bill do a lot of work for nothing. But I’ll get square with you, and those two men. I know Jim Nestor--I’ll fix you!”

“Look here!” cried Jerry, not willing to take any more abuse. “We had no more to do with your digging up the railroad track than the man in the moon. You fooled yourself. There was gold on the track, but it came from a watch that was run over. We didn’t know it until a little while ago. If you’re so foolish as to cart off cinders, and think they’re gold, that’s not our fault.”

“That’s all right! I’ll fix you!” growled Noddy. “Go on, Bill. I don’t want to talk to ’em, but I’ll get square, somehow!”

“Be careful it isn’t in the same way when you took the _Comet_--our airship--and had to walk home,” warned Ned, referring to something that had happened when the motor boys went after a fortune of radium in the Grand Canyon. Noddy and his cronies had overreached themselves that time; but even then, Jerry and his chums had saved the bully from the hut on Snake Island.

“That’s all right--I’ll fix you!” threatened Noddy. “Come on, Bill.”

“What’ll you take for that load of dirt?” taunted Bob, but Noddy did not answer.

“Better let him alone,” advised Jerry, as he started the auto again.

“Think he’ll make trouble?” asked Ned.

“Oh, he might try.”

“Ha! Ha!” laughed Andy Rush. “He was fooled all right. I was at the jewelry store when he took the dirt in. He said it was full of gold, and he asked the clerk how much he’d give for it. ‘Get out of here with that trash!’ the clerk yelled, and when Noddy spilled a lot of it on the floor, and on a lady’s dress, Mr. Smith, the proprietor, was so mad that he shoved Noddy and Bill out. Then Noddy fairly raved and I ran to tell you. I thought he might do you some harm.”

“Much obliged,” said Jerry, to the little chap. “I guess we can handle Noddy,” and yet Jerry felt a vague uneasiness as he thought of the sixty nuggets of gold, and recalled that Sim Fletcher might have overheard something about them.