“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.