It did not take long to remove the connections. Jerry probed a bit at the gasoline tank outlet and then, as a sudden flow of the fluid came, he cried:
“There it is! A bit of waste right where the pipe fits on the tank. There’s been some trick here!”
“Noddy Nixon!” exclaimed Ned.
“I shouldn’t wonder a bit. The night he took our boat he must have unscrewed the gasoline tank cover and dropped a bit of waste in. It took until now to float down into the opening, and no wonder we couldn’t start the motor with no gas in her. There must be something wrong with the carburetor, too, or she’d have run on what was in that. I’ll look.”
He found that the carburetor had been so tampered with that, while there was gasoline in the base of it there was none that could be drawn into the cylinder chambers. With the removal of the waste, and the adjusting of the carburetor, the motor started off at the first turn of the flywheel.
“Hurray!” cried Ned. “Now we’re all right. We’ll give Jim and Harvey another ride before we start for Montana and the sixty nuggets of gold! Ugh!” he suddenly grunted, as Jerry nudged him in the ribs. “What’s that for?”
“Didn’t you see Bill Berry passing just as you said that, Bob?” demanded the tall youth.
“No, I didn’t!”
“Well, he just sneaked past, and I’m sure he heard you. We’ve got to be careful.”
“Oh, I guess he and Noddy won’t bother us any more.”