LIVE WIRES
“Where do you think they came from?” asked Ned, when all, including the
professor, had viewed the snakes through the glass. Literally there
were hundreds, if not thousands, of reptiles.
They were wiggling and squirming, in and out among the rocks and
brushwood, just above the mass of drift débris brought down by the
flood. All about, in front of the hut the snakes writhed, seeming to be
out of their usual haunts.
“The water must have brought them out from their nests, or dens, or
whatever it is that snakes live in,” decided Bob.
“Do you think so?” asked Jerry, of Professor Snodgrass. “Why would
water bring out snakes. I thought they liked heat.”
“They do,” answered the scientist, who was eagerly looking at the
snakes through the glass. “But in this case I think the water brought
them _down_, instead of bringing them _out_.”
“How do you mean?” asked Ned.
“Why, I think the rising river inundated some place along the canyon
walls, where these snakes lived. They were washed out, carried down
stream by the flood, and deposited here--stranded, so to speak. I think
it has been done often before, in years past, and that is why they call
this Snake Island.”
“I believe you’re right,” agreed Jerry. “And I don’t think the big
stone pile in the middle had anything to do with the name, though it
may look like a snake at times. Probably the Indians, in years past,
saw snakes brought down in the flood, and they named the island after
the serpents.”
“Well, I’m glad they’re not at the other end of the island,” spoke Ned,
who disliked snakes. “We’d better go back there and start over again on
our search for the radium. The river is going down fast.”
“There may be snakes where we were before,” suggested Jerry. “We didn’t
look very closely.”
“Don’t mention it!” cried Ned with a shudder. “Let’s get away from
here, anyhow. I can’t bear to look at ’em.”
“Um,” spoke the professor musingly. “I think I should like to go down
there.”
“What! Among those snakes?” cried Ned.
“Yes, as far as I can make out they don’t seem to be poisonous, and,
though there are some good-sized ones there, I don’t see any of the
constrictor variety. I think it would be perfectly safe to go down.”
“But what do you want of snakes?” asked Bob.
“I don’t want any snakes, but, where there are serpents, there may be
toads, and I might find my two-tailed specimen. Of course if you boys
don’t want to go down you can let me off at some spot where there are
no snakes, and I can walk to this place. I’m not afraid.”
“We’ll go down with you!” exclaimed Jerry stoutly. “I think----”
But he never finished the sentence. At that moment the door of the hut,
in front of which the serpents were writhing, was swung open, and three
figures, each armed with a club, stood in the portal, waving their
hands to our friends in the airship.
“Look!” cried Bob.
“Quick! The glasses!” demanded Jerry, and when he had them he focused
the binoculars on the trio in the hut on Snake Island. Then the tall
lad uttered a cry of wonder.
“It’s Noddy Nixon!” gasped Jerry. “Noddy Nixon, and Bill Berry! And the
other man is that dishonest professor! How in the world did they get
there?”
“Are you sure it’s them?” asked Bob.
“Sure!” answered Jerry, and, a moment later, the airship having
approached closer, it could be seen, without the glasses, that those in
the hut were indeed the bully and his cronies.
“Help! Help!” cried Noddy, waving his hands in appeal to the boys whom
he had treated so meanly. “Help, or the snakes will kill us.”
“They’re not poisonous,” shouted the professor. “Go at them with your
clubs.”
“Yes, they are poisonous!” answered Noddy. “There were some jack
rabbits washed down with the snakes, and some of the serpents bit ’em.
The rabbits died right away. They’re poisonous snakes, all right! Help
us!”
“That makes it different,” said the professor seriously. “I didn’t
think they were poisonous, but they may be. I wonder what we had better
do?”
“Help! Help!” cried Noddy again. A mass of the serpents seemed to be
advancing toward the hut. Bill Berry threw a stick at them, and the
reptiles wiggled off in another direction.
“How did you get in the hut?” asked Jerry.
“We came down the river in a boat. We were wrecked, and cast on this
island. Oh, we’re nearly starved, and if you save us we’ll never bother
you again!” promised Noddy. “Save us from the snakes!”
“Shall we do it?” asked Ned of his chums.
“For the sake of humanity we can’t leave ’em there,” said Jerry. “We’ve
got to save ’em; but how? We can’t go down there among all those
snakes.”
There was a pause, while the airship hovered over the hut on the
island, in the midst of the snakes. The three conspirators eagerly
watched the motor boys.
“Those were the three persons we saw in the boat in the rapids,” said
Bob in a low voice, and his chums nodded.
“Can we save them?” inquired Jerry.
“Yes!” cried the professor. “There is only one way.”
“How?” demanded the tall lad.
“By live wires! Take some uninsulated electrical wires, Jerry. Attach
them to the dynamo, let them dangle down from the airship, and then
sail over the mass of serpents. The wires will hit the snakes and
electrocute them. It’s the only way!”
“Then we’ll do it!” cried Jerry. “Come on, boys, and we’ll drop the
live wires, and save Noddy Nixon!” A moment later several coils of
copper conductors, each one carrying a deadly current, were being
dropped toward the surface of the island.