“Well, part of our quest is finished, anyhow,” remarked Ned to Jerry, as they entered the Comet. “We’ve got the snakes. Maybe we’ll get the gold.”
“Of course we’ll get it,” exclaimed Harvey Brill, with decision. “Do you think I’m going to let your folks lose their money? I guess not! I’ll get the gold I hid, or I’ll find some more. I want to complete the deal on that mine, and I can’t do it unless I get those sixty nuggets. Oh, I’ll find ’em all right, as soon as we start to come up the valley from the other end, so I can pick out my landmark.”
“I hope so,” murmured Jerry, for he, as did the others, wanted “to make good.”
“Yes, we got the snakes, and maybe we’ll get the gold,” said Bob, as he went to the kitchen to see about preparing the evening meal. “But I don’t believe those serpents are luminous.” He had glanced at them on his way from the main cabin, where Professor Snodgrass was enthusiastically making notes about his latest prizes. “If they don’t shine to-night,” went on Bob, “Mr. Snodgrass will surely be disappointed. But I hope he isn’t.”
Could the hidden man have heard what our friends said, about not having found the gold, he might not have felt so chagrined as he got ready to rejoin his companions on the cliffs. But he had only overheard the talk about snakes, and had seen the boys and the men hunting for the serpents. He had not heard gold mentioned.
“This sure is the limit!” he muttered, as he crawled away from his hiding place, now that the coast was clear, the party being in the airship.
“Here I go and follow these fellows on a hard trail, thinking they’re after gold, and it turns out to be snakes! I get ’em to lower me over the cliff, and ’most break my neck, all for the pleasure of seein’ ’em catch snakes. Bah! I’m a fine one, I am, and it’s all that Nixon fellow’s fault! I’ll settle with him! He said they were after gold, and it’s snakes! Wow! Snakes! I’ll be the laughing stock of all the grub-stakers along the Border. There’s been a slip-up somewhere, and I can’t tell where it is. Yet I was sure that one of those fellows was the one who was said to have hidden the gold. But it was snakes! Bah! Snakes! This is the limit!”
He made his way through the gathering darkness to where his party anxiously awaited him. It was hard work hauling him up by means of the lariat, and once he slipped, severely hurting his back.
“Did you get a trace of it?” eagerly demanded Noddy Nixon, who was one of the throng on the cliff.
“Was all the gold hidden where we saw ’em digging?” asked Bill Berry.