“Then Noddy must have turned off on a side trail,” decided Tinny, as the rattling vehicle rumbled on.
“We’d better hurry if we’re going to catch him before dark,” suggested Ned.
“I’m just thinking,” said Tinny slowly, “that it will hardly be wise to keep on any further just now. It will soon be dark and we aren’t prepared to camp out over night. Besides, in the darkness we can’t do any sure searching.”
“What do you think we’d better do?” asked Ned.
“Go back to camp, get a good night’s rest, and start out fresh in the morning with a posse,” answered Tinny. “I’ll take a bunch of the miners with me, and Hank, you can lead another party. You boys can divide yourselves up if you like, and we can thus follow two or more trails at once, for we shall very likely get on false leads. Besides, I think we’d better get the professor back to camp,” he added in a low voice. “It looks to me as if he was about all in.”
So it was decided, and when as many of the professor’s bugs and insects had been picked up as it was possible for him to save, he was assisted into the automobile which was turned about and headed for Leftover.
It was quite dark when the party arrived, and Hang Gow and some of the men were preparing supper. The miners ate by themselves in a shack of their own, while the Chinese cooked for the Motor Boys, the professor and Tinny.
It was well they had returned as they did, for soon after arriving in camp Professor Snodgrass suffered a collapse and had a nervous chill.
Fortunately Mallison knew something of medicine, and as the professor carried in his bag some simple remedies, the sufferer was soon put to bed and everything possible done for him.