INTERNATIONAL COMPLICATIONS
Excitement was intense among the gold-seekers. They crowded around Mr.
Brill, eagerly examining the nugget so strangely found, weighing it in
their hands, and rejoicing over its discovery.
“That’s one of the sixty!” repeated the miner, over and over again.
“Now to find the other fifty-nine!”
But this was not going to be so easy as they imagined. Feverishly they
searched among the rocks and dirt, but when darkness finally fell they
had only recovered eleven of the lumps of gold, some larger, but most
of them smaller than the first one.
“But we’ll get the rest in the morning,” declared Jim Nestor. “The box
they were in must have upset when it was washed away, and they spilled
out.”
This was the explanation accepted by everyone, and, while they were
disappointed in not recovering all the gold at once, they felt that
they had good chances of ultimate success.
“For it stands to reason,” said Ned, “that the rest of the gold is
somewhere around here, and if we trace the course of the flood we’ll
find it.”
Jerry and Ned were awakened early the next morning by hearing Bob
moving about the airship. It was so very early that it was scarcely
light, and, for a moment they could not imagine what was going on.
“I say, what’s up, Chunky?” demanded the tall lad, leaning on his
elbow in the comfortable bunk of the aircraft. “It can’t be time for
breakfast; is it?”
“It isn’t light yet,” added Ned. “What’s the matter, Bob? Can’t you
rest?”
“I can sleep as good as you fellows,” was the retort, “and I don’t see
why, every time I move around, you think I have either got to eat a
meal, or start cooking one. I’m getting tired of it.”
“I should think you would be, Bob,” commented Jerry, with dry sarcasm.
“But, seriously now, what is going on?”
“I’m going to start looking for the rest of the nuggets, that’s all.”
“Why, they won’t run away,” declared Jerry, somewhat astonished at the
unusual energy displayed by the stout lad. “Can’t you wait until after
grub?”
“The quicker we find them the sooner we can start back home,” replied
Bob. “That is why I got up so early. I want to begin the search as
quick as it’s light enough to see, and it soon will be.”
“You must have some reason for the haste,” put in Ned.
“I have.”
“Can’t you tell us?” urged Jerry.
“No,” and Bob’s voice was a trifle short. “I’m going out to have a look
around. When you fellows get through snoozing you can come and give me
a hand. The professor’s up.”
“Oh, he never sleeps,” commented Ned, with a yawn. “Well, if you get
up, Bob, I’m going to have another forty winks,” and he turned over and
pulled the blankets around his neck, for it was chilly in the early
mornings.
Ned paid no further attention to his stout chum, but Jerry regarded Bob
curiously as the latter went out of the airship.
“There sure is something up,” decided the tall lad. “I wonder what it
is? Chunky has something on his mind, and he doesn’t want to tell what
it is. Maybe he has seen something of our enemies, and he wants to
hurry away from here before they get too active. But, in that case, I
should think he’d tell us. I guess I’ll go out and see what he’s doing.”
Jerry tried to arise and dress quietly, so as not to disturb Ned. But
the latter’s ears were sharp, and he turned over with a quick:
“Say, have you got the early rising bug, too, Jerry?”
“I thought I’d see what ailed Bob.”
“Nothing, only he’s hungry, I’ll wager, and he doesn’t want to admit
it.”
“But he’s out there looking for nuggets, and he didn’t take a bite to
eat.”
“He didn’t! Then there sure must be something wrong. I guess I’d better
get up, too; though it’s a shame, for I could have had another nap.
It’s early yet,” and Ned glanced reproachfully at his tall chum, and
then at a clock on the wall, its dial faintly illuminated in the light
of the newly-dawning day.
“Nobody’s pulling you out of bed,” retorted Jerry. “But it’s hardly
fair to let Bob do all the hunting alone, even if he did get up of his
own accord.”
The boys dressed silently, not wanting to arouse the others in the
craft, though Professor Snodgrass was already up, as he usually was,
before dawn each day, to get insects and bugs that were only abroad at
that early hour.
“Find any, Bob?” sung out Jerry, as he neared his stout chum, who was
walking along, his head bent over, making a course along the recent
flood, as nearly as he could trace it.
“Nope,” was the somewhat gloomy response. “There doesn’t seem to be a
one. But maybe, now that you fellows have condescended to come out,
we may pick up a few. Scatter out a bit, so we won’t go over the same
ground twice,” he added, as Ned joined them.
“Look here, Chunky!” exclaimed Ned. “You must have some object in
getting up so early and beginning this search.”
“I have. I want to find the nuggets.”
“I know, but you must have a special reason. What is it? If it’s
trouble, Jerry and I have a right to know. We’re just as much in this
thing as you are.”
Bob looked cautiously around. No one was in sight save Professor
Snodgrass, and he was so much engaged in trying to creep upon, and
capture, a specimen of an eight-toed lizard that was trying to get away
that he had no idea the boys were even up.
“There is a reason,” went on the stout lad. “I want to find the nuggets
as soon as we can, because our food supply is running low, and I know
Mr. Brill won’t want to leave here until we get the last of the sixty
nuggets. So the quicker we find them the sooner we can leave, and get
stocked up again. We can’t get anything to eat here.”
“That’s right,” agreed Ned. “But I had no idea our stock was so low.
We must have eaten a lot.”
“You mean _Bob_ must have,” put in Jerry.
“Look here!” cried the stout lad; “I didn’t eat any more than the rest
of you--that is, not much more,” he added, quickly. “But our food is
fast going down. Maybe we didn’t calculate right. Anyhow we’ve been
here longer than we thought we would. Now I don’t want to starve, so I
decided that I’d put in all the time I could on locating these nuggets.
That’s why I got up so early.”
“I knew there was eating in it somewhere or other,” declared Jerry,
with a nod of his head.
“Oh, yes, you knew a lot, you did!” retorted Bob. “Always casting it up
to me. I wish----”
“Say, cut it out, you fellows,” advised Ned. “If it’s as Chunky says, I
don’t want to waste any time, either. Let’s get busy.”
“I thought you’d get sense,” murmured Bob.
Together they hunted along the course of the flood, separating so as
to cover as much ground as possible. But that early-morning search was
unavailing. The light gradually became better, the golden sun, flooding
down into the valley; but even the bright rays did not reveal any of
the yellow nuggets amid the rocks and stones.
“I guess it’s going to take longer than we thought,” remarked Bob,
gloomily.
“Say, just how much longer will our food last?” demanded Jerry.
“Oh, well, maybe a week, or a week and a half,” began Bob, “but----”
“A week!” cried Ned. “And you’ve been throwing this scare into us with
a week’s rations on hand! Getting me up, to lose my beauty sleep, and
all that!”
“I’d duck him if it wasn’t so far to the water,” groaned Jerry.
“Well, a week’s supply isn’t any too much,” declared Bob, defending his
course. “Come on, now. We might as well keep on searching until it’s
time for breakfast. It will give us good appetites, and it’s early yet.”
“As if you needed an appetite,” muttered Jerry, as his eyes roved over
the ground.
Professor Snodgrass, giving over his attempt to capture the particular
specimen he was after, came up to where the boys were.
“Have you found anything?” he asked.
“Nothing in your line, I guess, Professor,” answered Ned. “We were
looking for--Look at that!” he cried quickly. “There may be something
you want, Mr. Snodgrass. There! Right between those two black stones!
“It’s some sort of a toad. Wait, I’ll get it for you before it can hop
away,” and Ned was about to plunge his bare hand down in a crevice
among the stones, when the little scientist sprang forward and drew
him back so forcibly that the lad sprawled on the ground.
“What--what’s the matter?” gasped Ned.
“That toad!” cried the scientist. “It’s deadly poisonous. It’s a spined
toad--not a horned one, though it looks like that species. It’s worse
than a rattlesnake. If you had touched it and it had poisoned you, why,
you might have died, though some persons have been known to recover.
Never touch one.”
“I--I thought you’d like it for a specimen,” murmured Ned, frightened
by his narrow escape.
“So I would, but it must be handled with a net. I’ll show you. I didn’t
mean to pull you back so quickly, but I once had a friend who nearly
lost his life because of a sting from one of those creatures, and I
thought you would touch it before I could stop you. Ah, now I have it!”
and, with a quick motion of his insect net, the scientist captured
the ugly-looking creature, which was soon painlessly killed by the
cyanide-bottle process.
Then they resumed their search for the nuggets, but by breakfast time
they had found none.
However, after the meal, which Bob looked at as though it might be
their last, they resumed their quest. Eagerly they searched, and before
noon they were rewarded by locating a few of the precious nuggets. Then
they became more eager, dividing up the territory so as not to cover
the same ground twice.
So busily were they engaged--even Professor Snodgrass doing his full
share--that none of them thought to take an occasional observation of
the distant cliffs. Had they done so, they might have seen several
figures looking down at them, though for the most part, the figures
kept well concealed.
And, had they heard the talk that went on among the spies they would
have felt they had good cause for alarm, for one of them was Jake
Paxton, the man who had been lowered over the cliff.
“I guess there’s no fake about it this time,” said Paxton. “They’re not
after snakes now.”
“I knew they’d look for the gold sooner or later,” declared one of the
party.
“Well, you were right after all, Noddy,” came the retort. “And now
we’ve got to consider how we can get it away from them. I guess the
mounted police will be our best play.”
Meanwhile Jerry and his friends were finding nugget after nugget. They
were considerably scattered by the flood, but once the gold had rolled
out of the box, it had sunk, and had not been carried more than a
comparatively short distance.
“Well, if we had three more we’d have ’em all,” said Bob, toward the
close of that memorable day. “We have fifty-seven so far.”
“Fifty-eight!” cried Ned quickly, as he stooped and held up another of
the yellow lumps. “We only need two more.”
“Let’s let them go,” suggested the stout lad. “I’m afraid our grub----”
“Drop that, Chunky!” cried Jerry. “We’ll stay until we get the whole
sixty nuggets, if we have to live on half rations!”
Bob groaned, and hastened off to the kitchen to take an account of the
food remaining. He came back, looking rather serious, but said nothing.
“Those two last nuggets aren’t so very large,” suggested Mr. Brill. “If
you boys want to go back----”
“We’ll get ’em all!” exclaimed Jerry. “The folks back home expect us
to, and we will. Why, there’s no special hurry, and I’m sure we’ll find
them soon. I----”
“Here’s one!” interrupted Jim Nestor, as he located a small lump of
yellow metal, where it had lodged between two stones. “And great
Peter!” he yelled a moment later, “here’s the twin! Hurray, boys! We’ve
got ’em all--the whole sixty nuggets of gold!”
“Good!” cried Jerry, while Bob said:
“Now we can go, and we won’t have to starve,” and there was a brighter
look on his face.
It was true enough. A count showed that every one of the sixty nuggets
had been found, and it was good work, considering how scattered they
had been. But the searchers had certain advantages on their side, and
nature, in a way, had aided them.
“Well, I reckon we’ll start for home in the morning,” remarked Bob,
a little later that evening, when they were seated about the supper
table. The sixty nuggets were piled in a box in the cabin, where all
could see them, and they glowed richly yellow in the glare of the
electric lights.
“Yes, we’ve gotten all we came for,” spoke Jerry, “and I guess we can
leave the valley in the morning. Our quest couldn’t have been any more
successful.”
“And I got what I came for!” exclaimed the professor, as he looked
at his luminous snakes. “I wish I could have gotten a yellow jumping
spider,” he went on with a sigh; “but I will look for that next.”
“‘All’s well that ends well,’” quoted Ned. “And now I’m going to turn
in--I’m tired.”
It began to rain in the night, and when morning came our friends faced
most disagreeable weather. It was cold, and a strong wind dashed the
rain against the windows of the motorship. But they did not mind the
elements now, for, snugly within the _Comet_, they did not feel their
inclemency.
“Here we go!” cried Jerry, soon after breakfast. “Turn on the gas, Ned,
and we’ll go up as a balloon until we get out of this valley. I don’t
want any accidents.”
The great motorship arose, and through the mist and rain ascended from
the valley of the luminous snakes and the sixty nuggets of gold. The
wind increased in violence as they got above the protecting sides of
rock, and when they reached the top of the big gulch the _Comet_ was
fairly heeled over in spite of her powerful propellers.
“Some blow, this!” gasped Jerry, as he labored to shift the rudder.
“Can we weather it?” asked Jim, who was in the pilot house with him.
“Oh, I guess so. But I’ll be glad when it’s over.”
“We’re on the Canadian side,” returned Mr. Nestor, as he looked down,
and took note of the landmarks.
“We’ll soon be in our own country,” went on Jerry, “though we could
make it quicker if this wind wasn’t against us.”
Hardly had he ceased speaking when from below them came several sharp
cracks, and at the same time the airship seemed to hesitate and
falter. Then it began to sink slightly.
“What’s the matter?” yelled the miner.
“Something’s wrong with the gas bag!” answered Jerry, who saw by the
vapor gauge before him that they were losing buoyancy. Then from the
observation cabin where he had gone, Bob yelled:
“There’s a crowd just below us, and they’re shooting at us, too!
They’re aiming at the gas bag!”
“I thought so!” murmured Jerry. The _Comet_ lurched to one side, and
settled more and more.
“Shut off the motor, Ned!” cried the tall lad. “We’ve got to go down!”
They descended gently, in a comparatively level place, and as Jerry
could tell that there were several punctures in the gas bag, he
turned off the supply of vapor, and set the pump going that forced it
back into the steel container, where it was compressed. The big bag
collapsed into its frame.
They had come down on top of the cliffs surrounding the valley, and,
hardly had they settled than a crowd of horsemen rode up, surrounding
them. Jerry saw that one or two wore the uniform of the Canadian
mounted police, and, to his surprise, in the throng were Noddy Nixon
and Bill Berry, and the man with the scar whom the tall lad had seen in
the railroad station.
“What does this mean?” yelled Jim Nestor, angrily. “Why have you shot
at us?”
“To stop you,” replied one of the police. “We are sorry, but it was the
only way. We had to stop you.”
“What for?”
“Because you are taking over the Border gold secured in the Dominion of
Canada, in violation of the international law. You must give up that
gold. It belongs to the Crown.”
“It does not! It belongs to me!” yelled Harvey Brill.
“Our information is to the contrary,” spoke the leader of the police.
“We regret that we had to fire on your balloon, and are sorry if we
damaged it much. But in a case like this, involving international
complications, it was the only thing to do. We had to stop you before
you got over the Border.”
“And who told you this gold was not mine?” asked Mr. Brill.
With a motion the police officer indicated Noddy Nixon.
“I thought so,” murmured Jerry. “Well, we’ll fight this thing out to
the end now. I see his game!”