“No—to telephone home that we’re all right,” said the stout lad quickly. “Of course,” he added, “if they invite us to have lunch, it—er—well, it wouldn’t be polite to refuse; would it?”
“Of course not, you old human refrigerator!” cried Ned, with a laugh. “Hi, Jerry!” he called. “Ten minutes for refreshments!”
Jerry, who was ahead with the Dartaway, laughed and understood. They were soon in the club house again, being congratulated on their success. They were invited to have something to eat, much to Bob’s delight, and they accepted, after telephoning home that the chase had ended successfully.
A little later they were under way again, and had tied their boat at their own boathouse, returning the Eel to Mr. Wood.
“And what became of Noddy?” asked that gentleman.
“He disappeared in the woods,” said Jerry. “It’ll be a long walk back, and it serves him right.”
They could see no reason why the bully should want to take their boat, except to annoy them, though Jerry had a suspicion that Noddy intended to hide it somewhere to get even for the fancied injury concerning the false alarm about the gold. But they never learned definitely.
“Well, I guess we’ll adjourn for the night,” suggested Jerry, when they were back in Cresville, and found that their parents had gone to their several homes after the conference. At their own houses the boys were told that the matter of preparing the necessary papers about the mine would soon be under way, and then they could start for the border, to search for the hidden nuggets of gold.
“Well, how about a motor boat ride to-day?” asked Jerry, of his chums one afternoon, about a week later. “We promised Jim and his partner to show them what the Dartaway could do,” he added.