“Oh, I believe he did,” declared Jerry. “Noddy isn’t the kind of a fellow to give up when he sees a chance to annoy us. I believe he found out, in some way, that we were coming here; and he suspects what for. If he hasn’t shown himself it’s because he doesn’t want us to see him.”
“And there are a lot of strangers in town,” went on Bob. “There have been rumors of a rich strike somewhere out this way, and the miners are just pouring into Kabspell.”
“I hope none of my old grub-stakers get here,” spoke Harvey Brill. “I’m not afraid of ’em, but I don’t want to get you boys into trouble if I can help it.”
“Well, we’ll be ready for it if it comes,” said Jerry, confidently. “Once we get off in the Comet they’ll have their own troubles following us.”
They worked hard that day, and spent most of the morning putting the finishing touches to their craft. Professor Snodgrass went about as his fancy dictated, making strange and odd captures at intervals. If he did not find the side-stepping toad at least he was hopeful of soon finding the luminous snakes.
It was not far to the border valley where the boys hoped to locate not only the queer serpents, but also the sixty nuggets of gold. Truth to tell, they were getting anxious for the real search to begin.
The last bolts had been screwed into place, the final adjustments made, the tanks were filled with gasoline, the electrical connections were all made, and the gas machine was in readiness to produce the powerful lifting vapor when needed. The extra mechanics had been paid off, and, true to his prediction, Jerry was ready to give the motorship a trial.
“Where are you going in her?” asked Ned, as he and his chums made some final tests of the mechanism.
“Oh, nowhere in particular. I just thought we’d go up a way, circle about, maybe descend on Flathead Lake and then come back here. We may find she needs a little tuning up. After we give her that we can stock our lockers, and start for the Border.”
“Good!” exclaimed Mr. Brill, and Jim Nestor echoed the words.