“What is the matter?” cried Mr. Seabury, in alarm.
“Nothing,” replied the professor calmly. “I have caught two horned toads, that’s all. I saw them as I was on the way here, and I had to go into a mud puddle to get them. I fell down, but I got the toads,” and he held up a small cage, in which were the ugly creatures.
“Ugh!” exclaimed Nellie.
“Good for you, Professor!” cried Jerry. “You got the toads and we got our prize money!”
“Yes, but I would rather have these toads than all your prize money,” replied the professor. “They are beauties,” he added, fondly.
The dinner was a joyous affair, and it is a question who was the happiest, the professor, over the capture of the horned toads, the boys over the successful outcome of their cruise on the Pacific, or Mr. De Vere, who had recovered his fortune. At any rate they all had a good time.
“Well,” remarked Bob, when the supper was over, and they were on their way back to the bungalow, “I suppose we’ll soon have to think of getting back east, and beginning school. They must have the pipes and boiler fixed by now.”
“Don’t think of it,” begged Ned. “It’s too awful. I’d like to go on another long cruise in the Ripper.”
“Well, I don’t know that we can do that,” said Jerry, “but I certainly hope we have more adventures soon.” How his wish was gratified will be told in another volume of this series, to be entitled, “The Motor Boys in the Clouds; Or, A Trip for Fame and Fortune.” In that book we shall meet many of our old friends again, and learn something more of a venture in which the motor boys were already interested.
“Boys, this has been an interesting trip for me,” said Professor Snodgrass. “I have the two horned toads, seven web-footed lizards, and over fifty other valuable specimens to take back with me. I would not have missed this trip for a great deal.”