“I’m going to look for the luminous snakes!” exclaimed Professor Snodgrass, as he hurriedly jumped up to capture a new kind of fly that had buzzed in through the open window. “The rest of you can look for the gold if you like.”
“Well, I guess there’s no reason for any more disguise work,” spoke Jerry. “We’ve left the Blackfeet Indians behind, the grub-stakers don’t appear to have followed us, and we seem to have left Noddy Nixon and his crew in the lurch. So, if the professor wants to go off by himself for specimens, I guess he can, while we try to locate where the gold is hidden.”
That seemed to satisfy them all, and they turned to Harvey Brill, on whom would fall the burden of locating the hidden nuggets of gold.
“If we can get in the airship, and move along slowly, not too high up, I think I can pick out the landmark that will tell me where I made the cache,” said the miner. “It’s near a big rock that looks like a church, as much as anything—it has a regular steeple.”
“Well, I don’t see why we can’t do that,” returned Jerry. “I can run the airship along as near to the ground as we like, by putting just a small charge of gas in the bag, so she won’t rise too high. It will be easier than walking the length of this valley, with all the rocks around.”
“But I can’t see the snakes, unless I’m right on the ground,” objected the professor.
“I was thinking of that,” went on the tall lad. “You can walk, if you like. We can leave you some food and water, and you can prospect as much as you please, just where you like. When you want us to come back and pick you up, just raise this flag as a signal, on a pole,” and Jerry produced a red cloth that could be picked out at some distance. “Then we’ll run the airship back and get you,” he concluded.
“And the snakes, too!” exclaimed the professor. “Don’t forget them. I’m bound to secure those specimens!”
“I hope you do,” murmured Ned; “and I hope we get the gold.”
“We’ll just have to!” exclaimed Bob. “If not the sixty nuggets, then some other, for the folks back home are sort of banking on us, and we can’t disappoint ’em after they’ve invested their money in the chance.”