“What’s the matter, is he crazy?” asked a man of Ned.
“No, he’s only a scientific enthusiast,” was the reply.
The danger of Mr. Snodgrass was now obvious to all, for the frail shelter was swaying with his weight.
“Here! What’s going on!” imperiously demanded Noddy Nixon. With Bill Berry, he had been over to the secretary’s office, and the bully was now coming back on the run as he saw the crowd about his tent.
“Get away from there!” he cried. “Ah, it’s that Snodgrass man! He’s trying to get in our hangar, and damage our machine. Bill, call a policeman and have him arrested. Get down off there, Snodgrass!” he called disrespectfully.
“Oh, dry up!” advised Bob to the bully. “Don’t you suppose if he wanted to get in there he could have gone in easier than by climbing up a rope?”
“Well, he has no right on our tent,” went on Noddy.
“He’s after a new kind of grasshopper,” explained Ned.
The professor paid no heed to the cries of warning, nor to Jerry’s appeals. Yet he was in grave danger. His motions, as he went up the rope hand over hand, for he was quite an athlete, made the main front pole of the hangar sway more and more, and it was almost on the point of snapping off.