“Well, you found me, and that’s as good as finding the secret, for I can tell it to you!” exclaimed the professor. “If you hadn’t found me you might never have discovered what you wanted. So, you see, it is the same, one way or the other.”
“I wonder if we can catch the thieves?” mused Bob.
“I think you can,” the professor said. “They didn’t seem to have any idea of giving up their dishonest raids, and, doubtless, they’ll pay another visit to Square Z.”
“Then we must go back and get ready for a round-up!” exclaimed Jerry. “Are you sure you can lead us to the secret valley, Professor?”
“All we’ll have to do will be to go to the gorge, find the hidden door and go through a tunnel-like passage that leads through the base of the mountain. It is the dried bed of an ancient stream, I take it.”
The airship never made better time than in getting back to the ranch, and the surprise created by the return of Professor Snodgrass, ragged and with bristly, unshaven face, was great. Everyone, from the foreman to the least of the laborers, was thrown into a state of excitement.
It was not until after Professor Snodgrass had been shaved by the ranch barber, and had put on some garments that were not in tatters because of his long tramp through forest and brush, that Watson really got at the facts of the professor’s abduction and subsequent escape.
“And so you have discovered the camping place of the rustlers!” exclaimed the foreman, gleefully.
“Well, the professor knows where it is,” Jerry remarked.
“You made good only just in time,” went on Mr. Watson.