“Oh, well, I’ll find out!” threatened Noddy. This was not difficult to do, as gossip travels fast and easily, and the hired men on the farm were fluent talkers. So Noddy learned that the Motor Boys were soon to start for the West, taking with them Professor Snodgrass at least as far as Chicago, and Bill Cromley all the way to Montana.
“Well, they got ahead of us, that’s all,” said Jack. “We can’t do anything about it. But I sure would like a chance to get my fingers in that chest of gold.”
“So should I, and we’re going to do it, too!” declared Noddy.
“How?” demanded Jack Pender.
“I’ll find a way!” threatened Noddy, who was furious over having been “done out of his rights,” as he expressed it.
Noddy would have picked a quarrel with the Motor Boys and have gotten into a fight with them the first time he met them after having learned about Bill Cromley’s defection, only Jack Pender, with more sense than he usually showed, pulled his crony away.
“That’s no way to do!” warned Jack. “We’ve got to get at them in some other way. We’ve got to trick them!”
“Yes, I guess you’re right,” admitted Noddy, cooling down. “But how? We can go out West, of course. I’ve got a car and plenty of money. But we need some one who knows about Thunder Mountain and Blue Rock.”
“And I know the very man for that!” declared Jack.