“Cake! He’s the limit!” cried Ned. “He’d make some kind of pastry, or dessert, if he had to use crackers and water, and we were eating our last meal. I never saw such a chap for grub!”
“Let him alone,” suggested Jerry, good-naturedly. “He means all right.”
“That looks like a good place to land,” suggested Jim Nestor, a little later, as the airship approached a spot comparatively free from boulders.
“I’ll try it,” agreed Jerry, and a few minutes afterward the motorship was safely anchored, while night settled down over the mysterious valley.
Bob’s fear for the cake proved unfounded, and the dainty came to the supper table, shortly afterward, in perfect condition. With the airship closed up, and the electric heaters going, the gold-seekers were very comfortable.
They sat about after the meal, talking over what lay before them. It seemed that they were almost at the end of their quest, though they realized that danger and uncertainty might beset them. Professor Snodgrass had about finished making notes of the specimens thus far captured. Placing away his books and boxes, he put on his hat, stretched himself, and started for the door of the cabin.
“Where are you going?” asked Jerry.
“To look for those luminous snakes,” was the answer. “It is good and dark now, and I can see them well. Now that we are in the valley where they exist I must lose no time in securing some specimens.”