“I’m sure I hope so,” said Jerry. “For if we go after that gold we’ll want some time to prepare, and get the airship in shape.”
“Are you going in the Comet?” asked Ned.
“No—at least not all the way there. That’s as far as I figured out. Of course we could make the whole trip in her if we wanted to, but I thought it would be better to ship her to—say Kabspell, put her together there, and then all get in and have a try for the valley of gold.”
“That wouldn’t be a bad scheme,” agreed Bob. “We could travel by railroad, I suppose, and if they have dining cars on the train——”
“Oh, you and your dining cars!” cried Ned. “Wouldn’t you get enough to eat if we took the airship?”
“Well, I might, but I have to do most of the cooking, and then, it’s rather cramped. You can’t really enjoy a full meal on board.”
“And Bob always wants a full meal,” laughed Jerry.
It was several days after the arrival of the miners, and the time had passed quickly. The chums had assembled at Bob’s house to talk matters over, and, in fact, they had talked about little else than the sixty nuggets of gold ever since hearing of them.
Jim Nestor and Harvey Brill had been made comfortable at the Hopkins home, as had Professor Snodgrass. The latter at once began roving about, as he always did, looking for new and strange insects, while the two Westerners went about town, Jim to call on some friends he had made during a previous visit.
“Yes, we’ve put it up to the folks now, as to whether we can go or not,” went on Ned.