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+Project Gutenberg's The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone, by Richard Bonner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone
+
+Author: Richard Bonner
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2004 [EBook #13783]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOY INVENTORS' RADIO TELEPHONE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Ronald Holder and the PG Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: (Frontispiece) Jack experienced an odd thrill as he
+prepared to send the first spoken word ever exchanged between an
+airship and land--_Page_ 71.]
+
+THE
+BOY INVENTORS' RADIO-
+TELEPHONE
+
+BY
+
+RICHARD BONNER
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE BOY INVENTORS' WIRELESS TRIUMPH," "THE BOY
+INVENTORS AND THE VANISHING GUN," "THE BOY INVENTORS'
+DIVING TORPEDO BOAT," "THE BOY INVENTORS' FLYING
+SHIP," "THE BOY INVENTORS' ELECTRIC
+HYDROAEROPLANE," ETC., ETC.
+
+_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
+_CHARLES L. WRENN_
+
+NEW YORK
+HURST & COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I. THE POWER OF THE AIR
+
+II. AN ENCOUNTER WITH A CHARACTER
+
+III. THE PROFESSOR'S DILEMMA
+
+IV. "WHERE IS HE?"
+
+V. CHESTER CHADWICK--INVENTOR
+
+VI. THE RADIO TELEPHONE
+
+VII. THE GREAT TEST
+
+VIII. TALKING THROUGH SPACE
+
+IX. THE BOYS FACE TROUBLE
+
+X. AN INVOLUNTARY AERONAUT
+
+XI. BY THE ROADSIDE
+
+XII. MAKING ENEMIES
+
+XIII. THE LEADEN TUBE
+
+XIV. IN THE HOSPITAL
+
+XV. A TALE OF THE COLORADO
+
+XVI. ZEB CUMMINGS
+
+XVII. IN THE LABORATORY
+
+XVIII. INTO THE STORM
+
+XIX. THE "LIGHTNING CAGE"
+
+XX. THROUGH THE AIR
+
+XXI. VAULTING TO THE RESCUE
+
+XXII. "Z. 2. X."
+
+XXIII. ON THE BORDER LINE
+
+XXIV. "THE THREE BUTTES"
+
+XXV. INTO THE BEYOND
+
+XXVI. THE START FOR THE UNKNOWN
+
+XXVII. THE PROFESSOR'S SECOND DILEMMA
+
+XXVIII. THE UPPER REGIONS
+
+XXIX. A MUD BATH
+
+XXX. NIGHT ON THE COLORADO
+
+XXXI. THE ISLAND OF MYSTERY
+
+XXXII. THROUGH THE WOODS
+
+XXXIII. THE SECRET AT LAST
+
+XXXIV. THE INTERLOPERS
+
+XXXV. TRIUMPH
+
+XXXVI. THE HOMECOMING
+
+
+
+
+The Boy Inventor's Radio-Telephone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE POWER OF THE AIR.
+
+
+"That's it, Jack. Let her out!"
+
+"Suffering speed laws of Squantum, but she can travel!" exclaimed Dick
+Donovan, redheaded and voluble.
+
+"I tell you, electricity is the thing. Beats gasoline a million ways,"
+chimed in Tom Jesson. Tom sat beside his cousin, Jack Chadwick, on the
+driver's seat of a curious-looking automobile which was whizzing down
+the smooth, broad, green-bordered road that led to Nestorville, the
+small town outside Boston where the Boy Inventors made their home.
+
+The car that Jack Chadwick was driving differed in a dozen respects
+from an ordinary automobile. There was no engine hood in front.
+Instead of a bonnet the car, which was low slung, long and painted
+black, had a sharp prow of triangular shape. Its body, in fact, might
+be roughly compared to the form of a double-ended whaleboat.
+
+As it sped along outside the city limits, and immune from hampering
+speed laws, the car emitted no sound.
+
+It moved silently, without the usual sharp staccato rattle of the
+exhaust. Behind it there was no evil-smelling trail of gasoline and
+oil smoke. The car glided as silently as a summer breeze on its
+wire-wheels, like those of a bicycle enlarged.
+
+"I'll get a great story out of this," declared Dick Donovan, who, as
+readers of other volumes of this series know, was a reporter on a
+Boston paper. "That is, if you'll let me write it," he added, leaning
+forward over the front seat from the tonneau as he spoke.
+
+"How about it, Jack?" asked Tom with an amused smile. "Shall we let
+Dick here get famous at our expense again?"
+
+"I don't see why not," said Jack. "Everything about the Electric
+Monarch is patented. The new reciprocating device, and the
+self-feeding storage batteries are fully covered. If Dick wants to
+write a romance about it he can, provided he leaves our pictures out."
+
+"Oh, I'll do that," Dick readily promised. "Are you making top speed
+now, Jack?"
+
+"Nowhere near; I wouldn't dare to. I believe that the Monarch is
+capable of ninety miles an hour. I wish we had a place like Ormond
+Beach to try her out on."
+
+"You can count me out on that," chuckled Dick. "This is fast enough
+for me."
+
+The boys were trying out their latest invention, an electric car
+capable of making the speed of a gasoline-driven vehicle, and one
+which could be operated at a minimum of cost, almost a nominal
+expense, as compared with the high price of a vehicle run by an
+explosive engine.
+
+It was the trial trip of the Electric Monarch, as they had decided to
+call it, and so far the performances of the machine had exceeded,
+instead of fallen below, their expectations. Dick, who had been
+invited to the "tryout," was full of questions as they sped silently,
+and with an absolute lack of vibration, along the road.
+
+"How do you generate your electricity?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"By a device geared to the rear axle," answered Tom. "It runs a sort
+of dynamo, though it would be difficult for you to understand it if I
+went into details. It's something like the ordinary generator and
+turns a constant stream of 'juice' into the storage batteries that, in
+turn, feed the engines."
+
+"Yes, that's all plain enough," said the inquisitive Dick, "but how do
+you get your power for starting?"
+
+"If there is not enough juice in the storage batteries for the purpose
+we resort to compressed air," was the reply from Tom, for Jack, with
+keen eyes on the unrolling ribbon of road, was too busy to have his
+attention distracted.
+
+"And that?" Dick paused interrogatively.
+
+"Is pumped into a pressure tank as we go along. See that gauge?" he
+pointed to one on the dashboard of the car in front of the driver's
+seat.
+
+Dick nodded.
+
+"Well, that's a pressure gauge. You see, we have sixty pounds of air
+in the tank now. That can generate enough electricity to start the car
+going. After that the process is automatic."
+
+"Yes, you explained that. Suppose the tank should, through an
+accident, be empty, and you wanted to start?"
+
+"We've provided for that"
+
+"I expected so. Wabbling wheels of Wisconsin, you fellows are
+certainly wonders."
+
+"Nothing very wonderful about it," disclaimed Tom. "Well, if we find
+the tank is empty we have a powerful, double-acting hand pump by
+which, without much effort, we can get up any pressure we need."
+
+"And then you turn a valve?"
+
+"Exactly, and the air-motor turns over the dynamo which starts
+generating electricity right away."
+
+"Then, except for the first cost of the car, the expense of operating
+it is comparatively nothing?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes, you might say we get our power out of the air, and that's
+free--so far."
+
+"And there's no limit, then, to what you can do or where you can go
+with the Electric Monarch?"
+
+"None; that is, so long as the machinery holds out. We are independent
+of fuel and the lubricating system is so devised that the oiling is
+automatic and requires attending to only once a month. We could easily
+carry a year's supply of lubricant."
+
+"Tall timbers of Taunton!" burst out Dick enthusiastically. "You've
+solved the problem of the poor man's car. All the owner of an
+Electric Monarch has to do is to pump a little pump-handle or press a
+little button and he's off without it costing him a cent. My story
+will sure make a big sensation!"
+
+"Well, you want to tone down that part about its not costing a cent,"
+chimed in Jack as they coasted down a hill. "The expense of the motor
+and the self-lubricating bearings and so on is pretty steep. But we
+hope in time to be able to cheapen the whole car."
+
+They were shooting swiftly down the hill as he spoke. The next moment
+he looked ahead again as they shot round a curve. As they did so his
+hand sought a button and an ear-splitting screech arose from a
+powerful siren.
+
+In the center of the road, quite oblivious to the oncoming automobile,
+was an odd figure, that of a small man in a rusty, baggy suit of
+black.
+
+He had a hammer in his hand and was hitting some object in the roadway
+over which he was bending with a concentrated interest that made him
+quite unconscious of the onrushing car.
+
+"Hi! Get out of the way!" yelled the boys.
+
+But the man did not look up. Instead, he kept tapping away with his
+hammer at whatever it was that absorbed his attention so intently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AN ENCOUNTER WITH A "CHARACTER."
+
+
+Jack jammed down the emergency brakes, which were pneumatic and
+operated from the pressure tank, with a suddenness that sent Dick
+Donovan almost catapulting out of the tonneau.
+
+"Jumping jiggers of Joppa!" he shouted, for he had not yet seen the
+obstacle in the road, "what's happened? Are we bust up?"
+
+"No, but if I hadn't stopped when I did we'd have bust someone else
+up," declared Jack. "Look there!"
+
+"Can you beat it?" exclaimed Tom.
+
+As the brakes brought the car to a stop within a foot of his stout,
+rotund figure, the little man in the center of the road looked up with
+a sort of mild surprise through a pair of astonishingly thick-lensed
+eyeglasses secured to his ears by a thick, black ribbon. He wore a
+broad-brimmed black hat and wrinkled, baggy clothes of bar-cloth, and
+a huge pair of square-toed boots that looked as if their tips had been
+chopped off with an ax.
+
+Over his shoulder was slung a canvas bag which appeared to be heavy
+and bulged as if several irregularly shaped, solid substances were
+inside of it. The spot where this odd encounter took place was some
+distance from any town, but a bicycle leaning against a tree at the
+roadside showed how the little man had got there.
+
+"Say, would you mind letting us get by?" asked Jack.
+
+The little man raised a hand protestingly.
+
+"I'll be delighted to in just a moment," he said, "but just now it's
+impossible. You see, I've just discovered a vein of what I believe to
+be Laurentian granite running across the road. I am trying to trace it
+and--what's that? Good gracious! Back up your machine, please. I
+believe it runs under your wheel. I must make sure."
+
+Jack obligingly threw in the reverse to humor the little man, who
+darted forward and began scraping up the dust in the road with his
+hands as if he had been a dog scratching out a rabbit hole. He began
+chipping away eagerly with his hammer at some rock that cropped up out
+of the road.
+
+He broke off a piece with his hammer, which was an oddly shaped tool,
+and drawing out a big magnifying glass scanned the chip intently. He
+appeared to have forgotten all about the waiting boys. But now he
+seemed to remember them. He looked up, beaming.
+
+"A magnificent specimen. One of the finest I have ever seen. Most
+remarkable!"
+
+And with that he popped the bit of stone into his bag, which the boys
+now saw was filled with similar objects.
+
+"Maybe he'll let us get by now," remarked Tom, but a sudden
+exclamation from Dick Donovan cut him short.
+
+"Why, hullo, professor," he said, "out collecting specimens?"
+
+The little man peered at him sharply. And then broke into a smile of
+recognition.
+
+"Why, it's Dick Donovan!" he beamed, hastening up to the car, "the
+young journalist who wrote an article about my specimens once and
+woefully mixed them up. However, to an unscientific mind----"
+
+"They are all just rocks," finished Dick with a grin.
+
+"I have had unusual success to-day," said the professor, who appeared
+not to have heard the remark. "I must have at least fifty pounds of
+specimens on my back at this minute."
+
+He broke off suddenly. The next moment he darted off to the side of
+the road and chipped off a fragment of rock from a bank that overhung
+it.
+
+"This is lucky, indeed," he exclaimed, holding it up to the light so
+that some specks in the gray stone sparkled. "An extremely rare
+specimen of mica that I had no idea existed in this part of New
+England."
+
+The odd little man opened his bag and introduced his latest
+acquisition into it While he was doing this Dick had been explaining
+to the boys:
+
+"He's a queer character. Professor Jerushah Jenks. They say he's a
+great authority on mineralogy and so on. I interviewed him once. He's
+always out collecting."
+
+"Does he always carry a quarry like that around on his back?" asked
+Tom.
+
+"Always when he's getting specimens," Dick whispered back.
+
+By this time the professor, his eyes agleam over his latest discovery,
+was back at the side of the car.
+
+"Ah, my beauty, I have you safe now," he said, patting the side of the
+bagful of specimens. "Boys, this is my lucky day."
+
+The boys could hardly keep from smiling at the little man's delight.
+It appeared hard to believe that anyone could find pleasure in packing
+about a sackful of heavy rocks on a hot day. But the professor's eyes
+were sparkling. It was clear he considered himself one of the most
+fortunate of men.
+
+Dick introduced the boys and, to their surprise, the professor
+declared that he had read of their various adventures and inventions.
+
+"We are actually fellow adventurers in the field of science," he
+cried, rattling his bag of specimens enthusiastically. "Some time I
+should like to call on you and see your workshops."
+
+"You will be welcome at any time," said Jack cordially, and then the
+professor declared that he must be getting home.
+
+"If we are going your way we can give you a ride," said Tom.
+
+"Thank you, I'll accept that invitation. But what an odd-looking
+automobile you have there."
+
+The boys explained to him that it was a new type of car that they were
+trying out for the first time and then Dick helped the scientist lift
+his bicycle into the tonneau. He would have helped him with his
+weighty load of specimens, but the professor refused to be parted from
+them. As they started off again he sat with the bag firmly gripped
+between his knees, as if afraid someone would separate him from it.
+
+The professor lived with a spinster sister to whom his specimens were
+the bane of her life. As the car rolled swiftly along, he occupied his
+time by peeping into the bag at frequent intervals to see that none of
+the specimens, by some freak of nature, flew out.
+
+All at once he reached forward and clutched Jack by the shoulder.
+
+"Stop! My dear young friend, please stop at once!"
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Jack, slowing down at the urgent summons.
+
+"Look! Look there at that rock!"
+
+To Jack the rock in question was just an ordinary bit of stone in a
+wall fencing in a pasture in which some cattle were grazing. But
+evidently the professor thought otherwise.
+
+"It's a fine specimen of green granite," he exclaimed. "I must have
+it. How did such a fine piece ever come to be placed in a common
+wall?"
+
+The car having now been brought to a stop, he leaped nimbly out,
+clutching his geological hammer in one hand and his precious sack of
+specimens in the other. He rushed up to the wall and stood for a
+minute with his head on one side, like an inquisitive bird.
+
+"Too bad. That stone's a large flat one and goes right through the
+center of the wall," he mused. "The wall must come down."
+
+And then, to the boys' consternation, he began demolishing the wall,
+pulling down the stones and throwing them right and left.
+
+"Professor, you'll get in trouble," warned Dick in alarm. "Those
+cattle will get out. The farmer will be after us."
+
+But the professor paid not the slightest attention. Taking off his
+coat, he resumed his operations with even greater vigor than before.
+The cattle in the field eyed him curiously. Then they began to move
+toward him. In front of the rest of the herd was a big
+black-and-white animal with sharp horns and big, thick neck.
+
+It gave a sudden bellow and then rushed straight at the considerable
+gap the man of science had made in the stone fence.
+
+"It's a bull!" yelled Dick suddenly. "Run, professor! Run or he'll
+toss you!"
+
+With lowered horns the bull rushed down upon the unconscious scientist
+at locomotive speed. But the professor was oblivious to everything
+else but uncovering the odd-looking green stone embedded in the heart
+of the wall.
+
+The boys shouted to him but he didn't hear them. On rushed the bull,
+bellowing, charging, ready to annihilate the scientist.
+
+"Run!" yelled the boys at the top of their lungs. "Run!"
+
+But the professor, with his precious bag in one hand and his hammer in
+the other, stood staring at the advancing bull through his thick
+glasses as if the maddened creature had been some sort of new and
+interesting specimen.
+
+"Gracious! He's a goner!" groaned Dick.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PROFESSOR'S DILEMMA.
+
+
+But the professor was seen to suddenly dart, with an activity they
+would hardly have expected in him, across the road. He was only in the
+nick of time.
+
+Almost opposite to the gap in the fence he had made was a tree with
+low-hanging boughs. As the bull charged through the gap, right on his
+heels, the professor, still with his bag, slung by its leather strap
+across his shoulders, swung himself up into the lower limbs.
+
+The boys set up a cheer.
+
+"Good for you, professor!" cried Dick, as the bull, with lowered head
+and horns, charged into the tree and made it shake as if a storm had
+struck.
+
+[Illustration: He was only in the nick of time.--_Page 22._]
+
+"Wow! That's the time he got a headache!" cried Tom excitedly, as the
+professor, clinging desperately to his refuge, was almost flung
+from it by the shock.
+
+"Gracious, boys, what shall I do?" he asked, looking about him from
+his leafy perch with a glance of despair that would have been comical
+had the situation not been serious, for the bull, instead of accepting
+his defeat, stood under the tree pawing and ramping ferociously.
+
+"Well, here's a fine kettle of fish!" exclaimed Jack. "What are we
+going to do now?"
+
+"Blessed if I know," said Dick helplessly. "By the bucking bulls of
+Bedlam, this is a nice mess."
+
+"Maybe we could throw rocks at him and chase him away," suggested Tom.
+
+"No chance; he's got his eye on the professor," returned Jack, "and if
+we did get out he would chase us and that wouldn't do the professor
+any good."
+
+"Can't you help me, boys," inquired the professor in an agonized tone.
+"This tree limb is not exactly--er--comfortable."
+
+"You're in no danger of falling, are you?" called Jack, in an alarmed
+voice.
+
+"No--er--that is, I don't think so. But this is an extraordinary
+position. Most--er--undignified. I'm glad my sister can't see me."
+
+"Try throwing some of the rocks out of your satchel at him," suggested
+Dick.
+
+But the professor waxed indignant at this proposal.
+
+"And cast my pearls before swine! or rather my specimens before a
+bull!" exclaimed the professor, in helpless indignation. "No, young
+gentlemen, not a pebble from this bag is wasted on that creature."
+
+"I'd drop the whole bag on him," said Dick, "if I was in that
+position. It's heavy enough to knock out an elephant, let alone a
+bull."
+
+"Can't you suggest anything?" wailed the professor.
+
+"I'm trying to think of something right now," declared Jack, racking
+his brains for some way out of the predicament.
+
+"I wish the farmer that owned him would come along and get his old
+bull out of there," said Dick.
+
+"Yes, and then there would be fresh complications," declared Jack.
+
+"How do you make that out?" came from Dick.
+
+"He'll probably know how to handle him," supplemented Tom.
+
+"Yes, he would if he's a bull-fighter," scoffed Dick, "and I never
+heard of there being any matadors in the vicinity of Nestorville."
+
+"Lots of doormats, though," grinned Tom.
+
+"Say, if you do that again I'll throw you out of the car," cried Jack
+at this atrocious pun.
+
+"Sorry, couldn't help it. Just slipped out," said Tom contritely.
+
+"Well, you'll slip out if the offense is repeated," retorted Dick.
+"But," he went on, "seriously, fellows, we've got to do something."
+
+"Try blowing the horn," suggested Tom. "It has scared everything else
+we met. Horses shy at it, so do other autos. Maybe it will get the
+bull's goat."
+
+"I'll try it, at all events," said Jack.
+
+He pressed the button and the unearthly screech of the electric auto's
+siren split the air. But the bull merely cast an inquiring glance in
+their direction and then resumed his vigil over the professor.
+
+"Boys," wailed the unhappy geologist, "can't you do something,
+anything? I can't roost in this tree all night, like a bird."
+
+The boys couldn't help grinning at this. With his sharp nose, big
+spectacles and flapping black garments, the professor did look like a
+mammoth black crow.
+
+"Reminds me of the fox and the crow," said Dick, in a low voice, to
+his companions.
+
+"Only, in this case, the fox is a bull, and the piece of cheese is the
+bag of specimens," added Tom.
+
+They looked about helplessly. There was no farmhouse in sight and the
+road did not appear to be much traveled.
+
+"We'll have to go for help," declared Jack.
+
+"The only thing to do," agreed Tom.
+
+The professor was hailed. He had climbed to another limb with infinite
+difficulty, because of the encumbering bag of rocks on his back. He
+declared that he could manage to get along till the boys came back.
+
+"By a merciful provision of providence," he said whimsically, "bulls
+can't climb trees. The situation might be worse if it was a bear."
+
+"It would be unbearable," declared Dick to Tom.
+
+"But just the same there's trouble a brewin'," retorted Tom. "I wish
+that farmer would show up."
+
+"As I said before--I don't," responded Jack, as he prepared to start
+off.
+
+"Why?"
+
+For answer Jack waved an eloquent hand toward the gap in the stone
+fence.
+
+"I guess he wouldn't be best pleased to find that his fence had been
+torn down," explained Jack, as the car drove off, leaving the
+professor marooned in his tree with the sentinel bull waiting
+patiently below.
+
+Some distance down the road the boys came to a farmhouse. Several men
+were working in the field under the direction of a stout, red-faced
+man. Jack shouted to them, and when the red-faced man came up he
+explained the situation to him. The man was good-natured, or perhaps
+he rather liked the idea of a ride in such a novel-looking car.
+Anyhow, he called three of his hands and told them to get pitchforks.
+
+"Never see a bull I couldn't handle," he said as the men, having
+returned, scrambled into the car.
+
+"Do you know who it belongs to?" asked Jack, as he turned round and
+headed back to where they left the luckless professor.
+
+"I reckon it's that big Holstein of Josh Crabtree's. He's pretty near
+as mean as his owner, and that's considerable."
+
+Jack thought of the hole in the wall and hoped they would reach there
+before farmer Crabtree, and so avoid serious complications.
+
+He drove at top speed, while the friendly farmer and his workmen clung
+to the sides of the car and looked rather scared at the rate they were
+going.
+
+"There's the tree," exclaimed Jack, as they came in sight of it, "and
+there's the gap in the fence."
+
+"And where's the bull?" asked Tom.
+
+"And where's the professor?" added Dick.
+
+Not a trace of the man of science or of the ferocious animal was to be
+seen.
+
+"Are you sure you boys didn't dream all this?" asked the red-faced
+farmer suspiciously.
+
+"There ain't even a cow in sight in the pasture lot," said one of the
+men.
+
+"I reckon this is some sort of a fool joke," added another.
+
+"It isn't. Indeed, it isn't," protested Jack.
+
+"The professor is some place around," said Tom.
+
+But a lengthy search of the vicinity failed to show anything except
+that the professor had vanished as if the earth had swallowed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"WHERE IS HE?"
+
+
+"Professor!" hailed Dick, at the top of his lungs.
+
+"Professor!" bawled the farm hands.
+
+The red-faced farmer himself regarded the boys quizzically.
+
+"What sort of a chap is this professor of yours?" he asked with an odd
+intonation.
+
+"He's a geologist," replied Dick. "Why?"
+
+"Oh, I thought he might be a conjurer," was the rejoinder. "He seems
+to be pretty good at hiding himself."
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Jack suddenly, standing at pause and listening
+intently.
+
+"What's up?" demanded Dick, instantly on the alert, too.
+
+"I heard something. It sounded like----"
+
+"There it is again," cried Tom.
+
+A faint, far-off cry, impossible to locate, was borne to their ears.
+
+"It's a call for help," declared Dick.
+
+"That's what it is," agreed the red-faced farmer. "Must be that
+perfusser of yours, but where in the name of Sam Hill is he?"
+
+It was a puzzling question. The faint cries appeared to be muffled in
+some way. They looked about them, endeavoring to locate their source.
+Suddenly one of the farm hands spoke.
+
+"I used to work fer old Crabtree," he said. "There's an old well
+hereabouts somewheres and maybe he's fell down that."
+
+"Where is it?" demanded Jack.
+
+"Back in the meadow yonder," said the man, pointing in the direction
+of the pasture lot.
+
+"Let's go over there and see at once," said Dick. "Frantic frogs of
+France, if the professor's tumbled into a well he may be in serious
+trouble."
+
+They set off on the run to where a pile of stones showed a well-curb
+had once been. The hoards at the top, which had covered it over, had
+rotted, and there was a jagged hole in them. Jack cautiously bent over
+and placed his mouth at the edge of the hole.
+
+"Professor, are you down there?" he hailed.
+
+"Y-y-y-y-yes," came up in feeble, stuttering tones. "I'm almost
+frozen. I'm hanging above the water but I can't hold on much longer.
+The bag of specimens is too heavy."
+
+"Throw it away," urged Jack.
+
+"N-n-n-not for worlds," was the reply. "I was looking for another rare
+bit of quartz when I fell in here."
+
+"I'll run to the car," said Jack, who had made out that the well was
+not very deep. "Fortunately, we've got a rope and tackle in there.
+Hold on, professor, we'll soon have you out."
+
+He hurriedly explained the situation to the others and ran at top
+speed to the car, in which the boys--like most careful motorists, who
+never know when such a piece of apparatus may come in useful for
+hauling a car out of mud or sand, for instance, or for towing an
+unlucky autoist home--had a block and tackle stowed.
+
+He was soon back, and the rope was lowered to the professor, who made
+it fast under his arms. Then, aided by the husky muscles of the farm
+hands, they soon drew him to the surface. But his weight was
+materially added to by the stones, and it was no light task to rescue
+him, dripping and shivering, from the dark, cold shaft.
+
+He explained that soon after they had gone some men came up and drove
+the bull away. But they had seen the gap in the stone wall first.
+
+"They were positively violent," declared the professor, "and said that
+they'd have the man who did it arrested if they could find him. Under
+the circumstances, I deemed it prudent to stay up in the tree, where
+they could not see me. They drove the bull off into another pasture.
+As soon as the coast was clear I climbed down, but I happened to see a
+rare bit of quartz sparkling in the sun on the edge of the well-curb.
+Imprudently I stood on the planking and fell in."
+
+"Gracious, it's a lucky thing you weren't drowned, with all that
+weight round your neck," declared Jack.
+
+"It was fortunate," said the scientist mildly, as if such a thing as
+drowning was an everyday occurrence. "As a matter of fact, if I hadn't
+succeeded in grasping a projecting stone and held on, I might have
+gone down. It was an--er--a most discomforting experience."
+
+"Well, of all things," exclaimed the red-faced man, "to go trapesing
+round the country collecting rocks!"
+
+"Not rocks, sir--geological specimens," rejoined the professor with
+immense dignity, "and--great Huxley! Under your foot, sir! Under your
+foot!"
+
+"What is it, a snake?" yelled the farmer, jumping backward as the
+scientist dashed at him with a wild expression.
+
+"No, sir, but a remarkably fine specimen of what appears to be a
+granolithic substance," exclaimed the professor, and he began
+energetically chipping at a rock upon which the farmer had been
+standing.
+
+"Crazy as a loon," declared the farmer, winking at his men. "Gets
+nearly drowned in a well and then begins chopping at a rock as soon as
+he gets out."
+
+"Oh, this has been a lucky day for me," said the professor with huge
+satisfaction, as he placed his latest acquisition in the satchel. "As
+fine a specimen, boys, as ever I encountered," he declared, turning to
+the boys.
+
+"Gracious," exclaimed Tom and Dick in low tones, "does he call getting
+chased by a bull and then tumbling down a well a satisfactory day?"
+
+"I should call it a rocky time," grinned Dick.
+
+But at this moment further conversation was cut short by the sudden
+arrival of a gray-haired, short little old man with a tuft of gray
+whiskers on his chin.
+
+"Josh Crabtree!" exclaimed the red-faced farmer.
+
+"Wow! now the music starts," declared Dick.
+
+Josh Crabtree, his face ablaze, and his small, malignant eyes
+sparkling angrily, emitted a roar like that of his Holstein that had
+caused the professor so much tribulation.
+
+"Say, be you the pesky varmints that tore down my fence and scared my
+bull out'n two years' growth?" he bellowed.
+
+"I removed some stones from your fence, sir," said the professor, "but
+it was in the interests of science. You may not have been aware of it,
+but embedded in your enclosing structure was a fine specimen of green
+granite."
+
+"Great hopping water-melyuns!" roared Old Crabtree, "and you tore down
+my fence to git at a pesky bit of rock?"
+
+"Rock to you, sir," responded the scientist calmly, "like the man in
+the poem a 'primrose by the river's brim, a yellow primrose is to you,
+and it is nothing more.'"
+
+"Dad rot yer yaller primroses," yelled Old Crabtree, dancing about in
+his rage. "You make good for tearing down my fence, d'ye hear me?"
+
+"I shall take great pleasure in forwarding you a check for any damage
+I may have done," said the professor.
+
+"I want ther money now," said the farmer truculently.
+
+"I regret that I have left my wallet at home," said the professor.
+Then he brightened suddenly. "I can leave my bag of specimens with you
+as security," he said, "if you will promise to be careful with them."
+
+He unslung his bag and tendered it to the angry farmer who received it
+with a look of amazement that the next moment turned to wrath when he
+saw its contents.
+
+"By hickory, what kind of a game is this?" he demanded. "Nothing but a
+lot of old rocks. By heck, thar's enough here to build a new fence!"
+
+He flung the bag down indignantly just as the professor darted forward
+with one of his odd, swift movements. He shoved Old Crabtree back
+without ceremony and bending swiftly to the spot where the angry
+farmer had been standing he picked up and pocketed a small rock.
+
+"Wa'al land o' Goshen," gasped out the farmer, bewildered. "What in
+ther name of time is this?"
+
+"A splendid specimen of gneiss," explained the professor triumphantly,
+"and now, Mr.--er--you were saying?"
+
+"That I wants ter be paid fer ther damage ter my fence."
+
+"How much do you want?" asked Jack, coming to the rescue.
+
+"Reckon a dollar'll be about right."
+
+"If you will let me lend it to you till we reach your home, I'll be
+very glad to pay him," said Jack aside to the professor.
+
+"But, my dear young friend, there is no necessity. He has ample
+security till I can send him a check. Why, that bag of specimens is
+worth fifty dollars at least."
+
+"Them old rocks," sniffed the farmer, who had overheard this last
+remark, "I wouldn't give yer ten cents fer a cartload uv 'em. They're
+too small fer fences an' too big to throw at cows."
+
+"You'd better let me pay him," said Jack, and the professor finally
+consented to this arrangement.
+
+This done, they started back on the run to the professor's home, which
+was about three miles off. On the way they dropped the red-faced
+farmer and his hands, who clearly regarded the professor as some sort
+of an amiable lunatic. But that worthy man, supremely happy despite
+his wet clothes, was quite contented, and from time to time dipped
+into his satchel, like a bookworm into a favorite volume, and drew out
+a particularly valued specimen and admired it.
+
+They soon reached his home, a pretty cottage on the outskirts of
+Creston, a small town with elm-shaded streets. The professor invited
+the boys to accompany him into the house. They were met in the passage
+by a shrill-voiced woman who looked like the professor in petticoats.
+
+"My sister, Miss Melissa," said the professor. "My dear, these
+are----"
+
+But he got no further in his introduction. Miss Melissa's hands went
+up in the air and her voice rose in a shrill shriek as she saw her
+brother's condition.
+
+"Lan's sakes, Jerushah, where have you been?" she exclaimed.
+
+"My dear, I must apologize for my condition," said the professor
+mildly. "You see I----"
+
+"You're dripping a puddle on my carpets. You're wringing wet through!"
+shrilled Miss Melissa.
+
+"Yes, you see, my dear, I've been down a well," explained the man of
+science calmly.
+
+"Do tell! Down a well, Jerushah? At your time of life!"
+
+"You see I was after specimens, my dear," went on the professor.
+
+"Specimens!" exclaimed Miss Melissa. "The whole house is full of old
+rocks now, Jerushah, an' you have ter go down a well to get more."
+
+"These are very valuable, my dear," said the professor, floundering
+helplessly.
+
+"Oh, don't tell me. A passel of old rocks. I'm going to get you a hot
+mustard footbath and some herb tea right away," and without another
+word, except something about "death of cold, passel of boys," the good
+lady flounced off.
+
+"She's like that sometimes, but she means well, Melissa does,"
+explained the professor, with a rather sheepish look as he stood in
+the midst of a puddle that was rapidly converting him into an isolated
+island in the midst of Miss Melissa's immaculate hall carpet.
+Suddenly, with one of his impulsive movements, he darted off into a
+room opening off the hall and came back with a dollar bill he had
+unearthed from a desk. He handed it to Jack, and then, raising his
+finger to his lips, he said:
+
+"Don't let Melissa see it. She's the best of women, is Melissa, but
+peculiar about some things--er--very peculiar."
+
+"Je-ru-shah!" came Miss Melissa's voice.
+
+"Yes, my dear, coming," said the professor, and shouldering his bag
+of specimens he shook hands with the boys and hastened off to answer
+his sister's dictatorial call.
+
+"I guess we'd better be going," said Jack, with a smile that he could
+not repress.
+
+The others agreed, and they were soon speeding back to High Towers, as
+the estate of Jack's father, also a noted inventor, was called, with
+plenty to talk about as a result of the events of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CHESTER CHADWICK--INVENTOR.
+
+
+As readers of the preceding volumes of this series, know, Jack
+Chadwick and Tom Jesson, his cousin, had won the titles of Boy
+Inventors through their ingenuity and mechanical genius. Jack's
+father, Chester Chadwick, was an inventor of note, and unlike the
+majority of inventors, he had turned his devices to such good account
+that he had accumulated a substantial fortune and was able to maintain
+a fine estate, already referred to as High Towers where, with
+splendidly equipped workshops and a miniature lake, he could
+experiment and work out his ideas.
+
+In the first book of this series it was related how Tom Jesson, Jack's
+cousin, came to make his home at High Towers. Tom's father, an
+explorer of international fame, had departed on an expedition to
+Yucatan and had not been heard from since that time. This volume,
+which was called the Boy Inventors' Wireless Triumph, told of the
+boys' exploits in the radio-telegraphic field and the uses to which
+they were able to turn them. In a flying machine, the invention of Mr.
+Chadwick, they discovered Tom's father, under remarkable
+circumstances, a prisoner of a tribe of savages, and also found a
+fortune in precious stones.
+
+In the succeeding story of their adventures, the boys helped an
+inventor in trouble. The Boy Inventors' Vanishing Gun, as this volume
+was entitled, set forth in a graphic way the triumph of the boys over
+the machinations of a gang of rascals intent on stealing the plans of
+the wonderful implement of warfare which they had helped bring to
+successful completion.
+
+We next encountered the lads in the Boy Inventors' Diving Torpedo
+Boat. Here they were placed in a new environment on the surface and in
+the depths of the ocean. The way in which the wonderful diving craft
+aided Uncle Sam in a crisis with enemies of the United States was
+told, and their ingenuity and bravery played no small part in the
+affair.
+
+The Boy Inventors' Flying Ship was devoted to a detailed narrative of
+the boys' long and unexpected cruise to the unexplored regions of the
+Upper Amazon. The boys were shipwrecked and cast away without an
+apparent hope of rescue on a yacht belonging to a German scientist,
+the crew of which had mutinied. The boys' capture by a strange tribe
+and subsequent escape in their Flying Ship formed thrilling portions
+of this story, while Dick Donovan's researches in natural history
+provided the boys with a lot of fun.
+
+The volume immediately preceding this showed the boys coming to the
+rescue of a poor lad, a waif and orphan, who yet had a fortune in the
+plans and specifications of a new type of craft invented by his dead
+father who had lacked the capital to develop it. Enemies strove
+desperately to secure the papers, and even went to the length of
+forging a will for the purpose, but partly through the agency of an
+odd German lad, Heiney Pumpernickel Dill, their schemes were
+frustrated and the invention was developed and set upon a working
+basis. This book was called the Boy Inventors' Hydroaeroplane, and
+dealt with some astonishing adventures and perils all of which the
+boys encountered with plucky spirits and resourceful minds.
+
+For some weeks preceding the opening of the present book relating of
+the Boy Inventors, Mr. Chadwick had been closeted in his own private
+laboratory. The boys had seen him only at rare intervals, and then he
+had appeared abstracted and preoccupied. This, the boys knew, was a
+sure sign that he was at work on a new idea.
+
+Sometimes the lights burned in his laboratory far into the night and
+in the morning he would appear at breakfast pale and silent. The boys
+had indulged in much speculation as to what the new invention could
+be, but had arrived at no satisfactory conclusion when, two days after
+their experience with the eccentric professor, Mr. Chadwick summoned
+them to his private workshop. The boys, who had been at work on the
+Wondership, the flying automobile with which they had met such
+surprising adventures in Brazil, obeyed the summons with alacrity. It
+was delivered to them by Jupe, the negro factotum of the place.
+
+"Massa Chadwick send me on de bustelbolorium," explained Jupe, who had
+a vocabulary that was all his own, "for yo' alls to come right away by
+his laburnumtory."
+
+"All right, Jupe, we'll be right over," said Jack, "just as soon as
+we've got some of this grease off our hands."
+
+The boys' workshop was equipped with a washbasin and they soon made
+themselves presentable. Then they hurried to Mr. Chadwick's workshop.
+They found him standing before a roughly-built table on which were
+ranged some odd-looking bits of apparatus.
+
+There was a gasoline motor in one corner, geared to a generator--or
+what appeared to be one--from which feed wires led to a square metal
+box on the table. Attached to this metal box was a sort of horn-shaped
+mouthpiece something like the transmitter of a telephone. Hanging from
+its side was what looked like an enlarged telephone receiver. Jack
+regarded his father questioningly.
+
+"You sent for us, dad?"
+
+"Yes, Jack," was the reply. "I'm in a quandary. Have you any idea what
+this apparatus is?"
+
+Both boys shook their heads.
+
+"Looks like some kind of a telephone," ventured Tom.
+
+"It is a telephone," replied Mr. Chadwick.
+
+"But--but--where are the wires?" asked Jack, glancing about him, "or
+haven't you connected it up yet?"
+
+"It's connected up as much as it will ever be," said Mr. Chadwick with
+a smile. "Can't you guess what it is?"
+
+"I've got it," cried Jack suddenly. "It's a wireless telephone."
+
+"That's right," admitted his father, and, in response to a flood of
+questions from the boys, he told them how he had been working day and
+night to bring the device to perfection.
+
+"Now," he said, as he concluded, "I want you boys to go down to that
+shed that was put up last week at the northwest corner of the
+orchard."
+
+"The one that was put up to store gasoline?" asked Tom.
+
+"I said it was for that purpose in order to avoid questions till I had
+my work completed," said Mr. Chadwick with a smile. "Here is the key
+to it. Inside you will find an apparatus similar to this one. Start
+the dynamo and then stand in front of the transmitter and place the
+receiver to your ear. If you don't hear anything at once use the
+inductor to tune your aerial earth circuit to the transmitted current
+from my end just exactly as you would tune up a wireless telegraph
+instrument to catch certain wave lengths from another instrument"
+
+"Then the principle of the radio telephone is the same as that of the
+wireless telephone?" asked Tom.
+
+"I'll explain that to you later in as plain language as I can," said
+the inventor, "but now I am anxious to see how this instrument will
+transmit sound."
+
+The boys were excited. Anything novel in the way of science attracted
+their bright, active minds as an electromagnet attracts steel. The
+idea of a wireless telephone, of the possibility of transmitting
+actual speech through space, just as the dots and dashes of the
+wireless telegraph are sped through the ether, quickened their
+inventive faculties to the highest pitch. Both felt a glow of pride
+that they had been selected, even before their father's scientific
+friends, to make the first test of this wonderful new invention.
+
+They hurried across the broad lawn that intervened between the
+workshops and the orchard where the newly erected shed stood, and
+which, it had been given out, was to serve for the storage of
+gasoline. Unlocking the door, they found inside an apparatus
+resembling in almost every detail the one in Mr. Chadwick's workshop.
+
+Jack's hands fairly trembled as he started up the motor and the
+generator began to buzz. With shining eyes and throbbing pulses he
+placed the receiver to his ear as his father had directed. But the
+next moment a flood of disappointment swept through him.
+
+"Well?" demanded Tom, himself a tiptoe with expectation.
+
+"Nothing doing," replied Jack, shaking his head. "I guess the thing
+isn't at a practical stage yet."
+
+"Wait a minute, give it a chance," urged Tom. "By the way, how about
+that tuning device, have you tried that yet?"
+
+"No, good gracious, my head must be turning into solid ivory from the
+neck up. I guess that's just what the trouble is."
+
+Jack began carefully sliding a small block connected to the
+instruments up and down the coiled wire which formed the tuning
+apparatus, and brought the sending and receiving ends into harmony
+just as if they had been two musical instruments. When the right
+electric "chord" was struck he should be able to hear, just as in
+wireless he would be able to catch the message of an instrument whose
+wave lengths were attuned to his.
+
+Suddenly Tom saw his chum and cousin give a start and then a shout.
+Over the space between the workshop and the small shed a human voice
+had been borne on electric waves. Sharp and clear as though he had
+been listening to a "wire" 'phone, Jack caught and recognized his
+father's voice:
+
+"Hul-lo!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE RADIO TELEPHONE.
+
+
+Back and forth through space they talked for quite a time. The boys
+were jubilant. The despair of many inventors, the wireless or radio
+telephone appeared to be an accomplished fact. But they didn't dream
+how much yet remained to be done. At length Mr. Chadwick told them to
+"hang-up" and come back to the workshop.
+
+The boys were glad to do this for they were extremely anxious to learn
+something of the forces controlling this aerial method of
+conversation. So far, they had not the least understanding, beyond a
+general idea, of how the thing was done. Of the details by which Mr.
+Chadwick had worked out this radical departure in telephony, they knew
+nothing.
+
+"Well, what did you think of it, boys?" asked Mr. Chadwick when they
+returned to the workshop.
+
+"Wonderful, beyond anything I could have imagined," declared Jack.
+
+"How far will it work?" asked Tom.
+
+"That's just the point," said Mr. Chadwick. "That's where I'm at sea.
+I need a metal of greater conductivity than any attainable to get real
+results. The carbon that I am using does not throw off enough radio
+activity to produce a sufficient number of electric impulses to the
+atmosphere."
+
+Jack and Tom looked puzzled.
+
+"You don't understand me I see," said Mr. Chadwick.
+
+"No, I must say I don't," said Jack; "you see----"
+
+"It's pretty technical," broke in Tom.
+
+"Well, then I'll try to explain to you, in simple language, the
+general principles of radio telephony," said Mr. Chadwick. "In the
+first place you know, of course, from your wireless studies, that an
+electric wave sent into the air will travel till it strikes something,
+such as an aerial."
+
+"To use the old illustration, an electric impulse sent into the air
+spreads out in all directions just like the ripples from a stone
+chucked into a mill-pond," said Jack.
+
+"That's it," said Mr. Chadwick. "Now then, as you also know the wire
+telephone works by a metal disc in the receiver, vibrating in exactly
+the same way as does the microphone in the transmitter. According to
+the vibrations of the voice of the person sending the spoken message,
+the electric current along the wire, acted upon by the microphone in
+the transmitter, increases or decreases. This increasing and
+decreasing current acts on a thin metal disc or diaphragm in the
+receiver which is held to the ear of the person listening to the
+message."
+
+"That's plain sailing so far," said Jack. "For instance, when you say
+'Hullo' over a phone, the microphone or transmitter gets busy and
+records it in electrical impulses and shoots it all along the wire
+where the receiver picks it up and wiggles the metal disc inside it to
+just the same tune."
+
+"That's it exactly," said Mr. Chadwick. "Now we are ready to go a step
+further. Now, as this metal disc is attracted or released by the
+current coming over the wire, it compresses or rarefies the air
+between it and the ear-drum of the person to whose oral cavity it is
+held. In this way the sensation of the same sound as was spoken at the
+transmitter end is reproduced at the receiver end. In other words, the
+transmitter jerks and jumps just as the needle of a phonograph does in
+traveling over a record, and transmits these jerks and jumps over the
+wire to the metal disc which by aerial pressure on the ear drums of
+the receiver of the message, causes the aural membrane to translate
+the words, or vibrations along the nerves, to the brain.
+
+"Following up this line," said Mr. Chadwick, "we find that the problem
+in radio telephony is the same as that met with in ordinary wire
+telephony. That is to say, we are required to cause a distant metal
+disc to repeat every inflection of the transmitter. But in the case of
+radio telephony the result is to be obtained by Hertzian waves,
+instead of by a current passing through an insulated wire."
+
+"The same sort of waves that are employed in wireless telegraphy?"
+asked Tom.
+
+"Just the same, only in radio telephony we are confronted by a problem
+not met with in wireless telegraphy. We have not only to transmit
+sound, such as isolated dots and dashes, but to send through the air
+every rise and fall and inflection of the human voice just as it is
+recorded in the minute lines of a phonographic record.
+
+"Experiments have shown that articulation, that is, understand, a
+speech, depends upon overtones and upper harmonies of a frequency of
+5,000 or 8,000 or more."
+
+"What do you mean by frequency?" asked Tom.
+
+"Speaking in reference to radio telephony it means the number of
+electrical vibrations per second required to produce a certain sound.
+In electric currents 100 per second is a low frequency current,
+100,000 per second is spoken of as high frequency. In early
+experiments with radio telephony it was found that the chief
+difficulty lay in obtaining a current of sufficiently high frequency
+to transmit the human voice, the currents used in wireless telephony
+being much too weak for this purpose.
+
+"I had, therefore, to invent my own alternator, which is attached to
+that gasoline motor. There is a similar one in the shed from which you
+just talked with me."
+
+"But why does radio telephony require a stronger current than wireless
+telegraphy?" Tom wanted to know.
+
+"Because, up to the present, no way has been found of utilizing in
+radio telephony the entire energy of the electric waves sent out,"
+replied Professor Chadwick. "Only the variations in the waves can be
+detected, or transformed into sound at the receiving end of a radio
+telephone system. Therefore an immense amount of electrical energy has
+to be manufactured in order that the voice vibrations may register
+their variations as powerfully as possible."
+
+"What percentage of the electrical energy manufactured by a high
+frequency alternator can be transformed into variations of sound?"
+asked Jack.
+
+"Not more than five to eight per cent. of the total energy. So
+therefore the waste is enormous. In wireless telegraphy, on the other
+hand, the entire energy radiated from a sending station can be picked
+up to the limit of the receiver's capacity to detect it."
+
+"Isn't there any way in which this difficulty could be overcome?"
+inquired Tom.
+
+"Yes, there is," said Mr. Chadwick, after a moment's thought, "and I
+believe that I am the only man in the world employed with radio
+telephonic problems who knows of it."
+
+"Why can't you use it, then?" asked Jack.
+
+"Because there are almost insurmountable difficulties in the way.
+There is a substance chemically known Z. 2. X. which, if it could be
+applied to purposes of transmission and detection, has such immense
+powers of electrical absorption that messages could be sent almost any
+distance, and with far greater economy of power than at present."
+
+"How far can you send them now?" asked Jack.
+
+"About five miles. At least I think so. I'm not even sure of that,"
+was Mr. Chadwick's reply.
+
+But Jack was impatient to get back to Z. 2. X.
+
+"Why can't you use this Z. 2. X.," he questioned, "if it would
+practically wipe out your troubles in sending and receiving?"
+
+"Because there is even less of it in the world than there is of
+radium," was the startling reply. "At present Z. 2. X. costs far more
+than radium. It is the most intensely radio-active stuff in the world.
+It is capable of being wrought into metal if anybody had ever found
+enough of it, but except for a small deposit in South Africa, which
+has been devoted to experimental purposes, nobody has any.
+
+"But enough of that now. That is only a dream. I am anxious, though,
+to test out my present apparatus thoroughly, and to do it I shall need
+the help of you boys."
+
+"In what way?" asked Jack.
+
+"In giving it a thorough trial to ascertain over how great a space I
+can transmit wireless speech."
+
+"Are you going to put up another station outside the grounds?" asked
+Tom.
+
+"No; I don't want to attract attention to my experiments. You boys
+have a wireless telegraph outfit on your Wondership?"
+
+Jack nodded. He was curious, as was Tom, to know the Professor's plan.
+They did not have long to wait.
+
+"I wish you would get the machine ready to install a radio-telephone
+outfit in its place. In that way I can gauge the limits of my
+invention without attracting undue attention, as everybody in this
+vicinity has seen you in flight and would imagine that you were merely
+taking a trip through the air."
+
+"But can you get out an apparatus light enough for us to take up?"
+asked Jack.
+
+"I am working on that now," said Mr. Chadwick. "I'll have it ready in
+a week."
+
+"We'll be ready for you," promised Jack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE GREAT TEST.
+
+
+A week later to the day on a sunshiny, windless morning, the
+Wondership was run out of its shed, glistening with new paint and with
+every bit of bright work burnished till it shone and sparkled like
+newly-minted silver. Amidships on the craft, the general construction
+of which is familiar to readers of foregoing volumes of this series,
+was a square metal box with small wires leading to long copper wires
+stretched from end to end of the Wondership's body.
+
+These long copper wires were to form the aerials by which the messages
+from Mr. Chadwick's workshop were to be caught. The smaller wires
+underneath were connected with the metal work of the engine. These
+wires formed a "ground" similar to the kind employed in aerial
+wireless telegraphy.
+
+The details of the Wondership having been fully described in the Boy
+Inventors' Flying Ship, we shall not enter here into any but a brief
+and general description of the craft. The Wondership, then, was a
+combination of dirigible balloon, automobile and boat. Her motive
+power was furnished by engines driven by an explosive volatile gas
+which was also used when occasion arose to inflate the bag of the
+balloon feature of her design. The gas was generated in the lower part
+of the craft's semi-cylindrical metal body.
+
+On land two big aerial propellers, geared to the engine, drove the
+Wondership swiftly along on four solid-tired wheels. When it was
+desired to take to the air the balloon bag, which was neatly folded on
+a framework supported by upright stanchions above the body of the car,
+was inflated by turning on a valve connecting with the gas tanks in
+the base of the body.
+
+When the Wondership was intended to navigate the water she was driven
+by the same aerial propellers that afforded her motive power on land
+or in the air. She then became what may be called a hydromobile. If it
+chanced to be rough weather, special hermetically sealed panels could
+be drawn together, completely enclosing the body and making the craft
+a water-tight "bottle." Ventilation was provided in such a case by a
+hollow telescopic tube which reached twenty-five feet into the air. It
+was divided in two. Fresh air was drawn by a fan down one section,
+while the stale air in the "cabin" was forced out by a similar device
+up the other part of the tube. Stability was afforded by hollow
+pontoons, which worked on toggle joints, and could be raised or
+lowered as desired.
+
+With the aid of Jupe, the gas bag was inflated to a point where only a
+slight additional quantity of gas would cause the craft to shoot
+upward to the sky. When all was ready a test of the instruments was
+made and they were found to be working perfectly. The powerful
+alternator on the Wondership was, of course, worked by the same motor
+that drove the big propellers.
+
+"Well, I guess there's nothing to keep you back now," said Mr.
+Chadwick, who looked pale and ill after his long days and nights of
+work on his invention.
+
+"No, we're as ready as we ever will be," said Jack, making ready to
+climb into the machine above which the big yellow balloon bag was
+billowing and sending impatient quiverings through the Wondership.
+
+"I want you to promise me one thing, dad," said Jack, when he had
+climbed into the driver's seat, in front of Tom, whose duty it was to
+look after the engine.
+
+"What is that, my boy?" asked the inventor.
+
+"That after this test, whatever the result may be, you will take a
+long rest."
+
+"Yes, I will, I must," agreed his father. "I've been working too hard,
+I guess, but in the excitement of perfecting the radio telephone I
+hardly noticed it. But recently I've had dizzy spells."
+
+"Two weeks' rest will make you well," declared Jack, as he adjusted
+the controls.
+
+"Good-by and good luck," said his father.
+
+Both boys waved their hands.
+
+"All ready, Tom?" hailed Jack.
+
+The other boy nodded and then turned on a valve so that with a hissing
+sound additional gas rushed into the bag. Jack pulled a lever. The big
+motors roared and a queer, sickly smell of burned gas filled the air.
+The propellers began to revolve slowly and then increased their speed
+till they became a mere blur.
+
+"Dere she go! Gollyumption, dere she go!" cried Jupe, capering about.
+
+As the old black spoke, the Wondership shot up like a rocket, tilting
+her nose slightly into the air. But the next moment Jack had her on an
+even keel. In an incredibly short space of time those watching below
+saw her only as a glinting, golden speck against the blue sky,
+circling like some strange bird far above their heads.
+
+"Now for the tests," said Mr. Chadwick, as he hastened to his
+workshop.
+
+He set the big alternator at work at top speed. It droned like a gaunt
+bee. The inventor's face, worn by his anxious vigils at his
+experiments, was as keen as a hawk's, while he adjusted the
+instruments and placed his long, lean fingers on the tuning device.
+
+Far above the earth Jack and Tom could look down upon a patchwork of
+villages, farms, green pastures, yellow grain fields and stretches of
+woodland. They were too far up to distinguish figures, but they could
+see the white steam of rushing trains along the railroad tracks, and
+even catch the sound of the engines' whistles.
+
+Beyond glinted the blue of the sea flecked with sails and with here
+and there a steamer's smoke smudging the horizon. Both lads were in
+high spirits. It seemed good to be navigating the air again. Every now
+and then inquisitive, high-flying crows would swoop toward the machine
+and then dash off again with alarmed squawks.
+
+Although they were making a high rate of speed, they hardly seemed to
+be moving as they soared in long circles. To get a sense of rapid
+motion, stationary objects must be in sight. In the lonely air it was
+hard to tell that they were moving at all except by looking down at
+the earth which, as they rose, appeared to be rushing from them, as if
+it were sinking through space.
+
+But novel as all these sensations would be to an aerial novice, they
+were an old story to the boys. Jack devoted his attention to testing a
+new steering appliance he had equipped the craft with, and Tom watched
+his engines with an eagle eye to detect a skip or a "knock."
+
+"How high now?" asked the young engineer after an interval.
+
+Jack glanced at the barograph on the dashboard in front of him.
+
+"Three thousand feet," he said.
+
+"Might as well connect the alternator?" said Tom interrogatively.
+
+Jack nodded, and Tom threw a lever which brought the generator of
+high frequency currents in contact with the motor by means of a
+friction fly-wheel. The alternator began to buzz and spark, crackling
+viciously.
+
+A sort of metal helmet with two receivers attached to it, one on each
+side, lay handy at Jack's hand. In front of him was the transmitter
+joined to the metal box which contained the microphone, transformers
+and inductance tuning coil. Tuning in the aerial apparatus was
+effected by means of a small knob projecting through a slit in the
+metal box enclosing the delicate instruments including the detector.
+By working this knob the tuning block was moved up and down the coil
+till a proper "pitch" was obtained.
+
+Jack experienced an odd thrill as he prepared to send the first spoken
+word ever exchanged between an airship in motion and a station on
+land. He and Tom had sent plenty of wireless messages while soaring
+through the ether, but somehow, the dot and dash system had not half
+the fascination and mystery of the possibility of exchanging coherent
+speech between land and air.
+
+He placed his lips close to the receiver, and with his hand on the
+tuning knob sent forth a loud, clear hail:
+
+"Hullo, High Towers!"
+
+There was no answer for a few seconds while he patiently adjusted the
+tuning knob. But then came a faint buzz like the humming of a drowsy
+bee. Suddenly, sharp and distinct, as if his father was at his elbow,
+came Mr. Chadwick's voice in reply:
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"This is the Wondership. Three thousand feet in the air," cried Jack.
+
+"Congratulations, my boy. It's a success so far."
+
+"What shall we do now?" asked Jack.
+
+"I want you to fly in the direction of Rayburn, and try to keep in
+communication all the way."
+
+"All right, dad," responded Jack, and altered the course of the
+Wondership.
+
+Rayburn was a small village some twenty-five miles to the north of
+Nestorville. Jack kept the receivers on his ears as he flew along.
+From time to time he exchanged conversation with his father. So far
+everything appeared to be working as if there were no limit to the
+distance over which the voices from the air and land could converse.
+
+But suddenly there came a startling interruption to the experiments.
+
+Jack felt a sharp "Bang" at his ears as if a small cannon had been
+fired close at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+TALKING THROUGH SPACE.
+
+
+As the distance increased between air and land stations, the currents
+became stronger, and frequent tuning was necessary. But Jack was able
+to keep up a constant conversation with his father, telling him all
+the details of the country as they flew along. The sudden explosion,
+however, for it sounded like nothing else, startled him into a sharp
+exclamation.
+
+"What in the world was that?"
+
+As if he had spoken the question to someone close at hand, came back
+the explanation.
+
+"Wireless telegraph wave crossing ours," said his father. "Some
+powerful land station is sending out a message, possibly to some
+ship."
+
+"It almost broke my ear drum," said Jack, and inwardly resolved to
+devote some time to trying to solve the problem of avoiding such
+"collisions" in the future. It occurred to him that some sort of a
+circuit breaker might be devised to cut off, temporarily, the
+telephone talk by automatic means when a cross-wave of high energy
+struck its current.
+
+The shock was not repeated, and the conversation went on, still as
+sharp and as clear as when they had started out. A few minutes later
+Jack was able to report they were passing over Rayburn.
+
+"You'd better keep on," said his father, his voice aglow with
+enthusiasm. "It's working beyond my wildest expectations."
+
+"It's dandy," agreed Jack.
+
+They talked without raising their voices to any great extent, but it
+was necessary to articulate very clearly so that each variation of
+sound might be sent out into space as clearly as the notes of a singer
+come from the record of a phonograph. But it was amazing, almost
+uncanny to Jack that such results could be obtained at all.
+
+"Goodness, if only we could get that mineral substance that dad was
+talking about I believe you could rig up a radio telephone that would
+talk across the ocean," he said to Tom, "and think what that would
+mean. For instance, instead of bothering with the cable you could step
+into a radio-telephone office and say: 'Give me the London Exchange.'
+In a few minutes the central would answer and you could tell her what
+number you wanted on some regular wire line. Before long you'd get it,
+and be talking to whoever you had called just as if they were
+twenty-five miles off instead of three thousand!"
+
+"It seems like a dream," said Tom.
+
+"Not much of a dream about it. All it needs is development. We've
+proved to-day it can be done," declared Jack, bubbling over with
+enthusiasm.
+
+They flew over meadow land and pasture, farmhouses where tiny figures
+emerged from buildings and looked up at them, over rivers and
+railroads, and still the alternator spat and sparked and the messages
+between Jack and his father were interchanged in a steady stream.
+Rayburn had been left behind. They were now over a small town Jack
+believed to be Hempstead.
+
+He looked at his map to make sure. It was one that he had specially
+plotted out himself from observations he had made when flying in the
+vicinity. Having verified their whereabouts he found that they had
+flown about fifty miles, possibly a fraction more.
+
+But at this juncture he noticed that the voice of his father pulsing
+through space began to grow thin and weak. Obviously the limit of the
+radio 'phone's capacity had been reached.
+
+"Better turn back," said Mr. Chadwick.
+
+Jack turned to Tom and gave him the necessary instructions. Then he
+set over his guiding wheel, turning the big rudder at the stern of the
+Wondership and she acted as obediently as a sea-going craft answering
+her helm. Never had she behaved better.
+
+They flew swiftly back toward High Towers and were soon in sight of
+Rayburn. In order to test what effect the magnetism of the earth had
+upon the radio messages, Jack brought the great flying craft close to
+the ground. They almost grazed the treetops as they flew along.
+
+Skimming a patch of trees they roared above a farmhouse with a great
+red barn adjoining it. The barn attracted Jack's attention because of
+the fact that it had a flat roof, an almost unique feature in that
+part of the country. He supposed it was used to dry some sort of
+produce on and noted that there were several hop-fields near at hand.
+Undoubtedly the roof was used for exposing them to the sun and thus
+drying the moisture from them without the expense of wood for the
+drying fires usually used for the purpose.
+
+He had hardly noted all this when there came a sudden tug at the
+Wondership as if a titanic hand had reached up from below and grasped
+her. She pitched wildly and, but for Jack's skill as an airman, there
+might have been a serious accident. But he brought the big craft
+under control by skillful manipulation.
+
+The next instant he discovered what had occurred. The grapple of the
+aircraft had, in some way, dropped from its fastenings and, trailing
+behind the Wondership, had caught in the roof of the farmer's barn.
+
+A great section of it was torn away and as Jack brought the Wondership
+to rest on the roof, the only available place, for the rope was in
+danger of fouling the propellers if he descended to the ground, the
+farmer and a number of his men came running from the farmhouse.
+
+In the hands of the farmer was a formidable looking shotgun. As the
+Wondership settled on the roof of the barn the man began shouting
+angrily.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE BOYS FACE TROUBLE.
+
+
+"Phew! looks as if we are in for trouble," exclaimed Tom, as he saw
+the warlike expression on the farmer's face.
+
+"It does that," agreed Jack. "Hop out, will you, Tom, and get that
+grapple clear? Confound it, I don't see how it came loose."
+
+"Wore through the lashing," said Tom, who had been examining the place
+where the big hooked steel anchor was usually tied.
+
+"We ought to have seen to it before we started out," said Jack. "We
+haven't had it loose since that time we anchored above the Brazilian
+forest."
+
+The farmer's angry voice hailed them from below.
+
+"Hey there! Don't yew move a foot till we've had a reck'nin'."
+
+"I am awfully sorry," said Jack. "It was an accident you see. We----"
+
+"Don't care what it was. Thet thar was a new roof. Don't you move a
+step till Si here gits ther constabule."
+
+"We'll pay you for the roof," said Jack apologetically. "After all it
+isn't much damaged."
+
+Indeed it appeared as if the damage was not so great as they had at
+first imagined. After tearing off some shingles the grapple had caught
+in a beam and was prevented from doing further harm.
+
+"Yes, yew'll pay, and yew'll go ter jail tew," declared the farmer.
+"Consarn it all, what's the country comin' tew? Las' week tew pesky
+dod-ratted balloonists hit Hi Holler on ther head with a bag of sand,
+and now yew come along in thet thar contraption and try to bust up my
+dryin' roof. I'll have ther law on yer."
+
+Matters began to look serious. Jack had no doubt but what the farmer
+would accept a money payment for the damaged roof. But it appeared
+that the old fellow was bent on more stringent vengeance.
+
+In the meantime Tom had been busy in the stern of the craft and had
+succeeded in getting the grapnel loose from the beam into which its
+sharp points had dug. It was not till that moment that the farmer
+observed him.
+
+He leveled his shotgun at the balloon of the Wondership.
+
+"Don't yew dare ter move er I'll bust a hole right plumb through that
+ther airbag of yourn," he said.
+
+"Can't you be reasonable?" asked Jack. "Here's my name." He wrote his
+name and address on a slip of paper and threw it down.
+
+But the irate farmer paid no attention to the missive. He kept his gun
+steadily trained on the Wondership.
+
+"Move an' I'll bust yer!" he said grimly.
+
+A buggy drove out of the yard. It raced through the gate and then
+struck the highroad leading to Rayburn.
+
+"Thar' goes Si arter ther constabule," said the farmer, licking his
+thin lips as if with relish. "Hi Ketchum is a rare one arter
+automobubblists. I reckon he'll be right smart tickled to death when
+he hears I got a whole airship fer him ter 'rest."
+
+"Bother the old grouch," muttered Tom, as he climbed back into the
+Wondership, the bag of which was deflated just enough to keep her at
+rest on the roof.
+
+"He's evidently mighty serious in his intentions," said Jack, with a
+troubled face. "What are we going to do?"
+
+There was a sudden puff of wind and the big yellow balloon bag swayed
+slightly.
+
+Instantly the farmer's finger crooked on his trigger. He thought the
+boys were going to give him the slip.
+
+"No you don't," he shouted, "you don't fool Ezry Perkins that 'er
+way!"
+
+"We're not trying to fool you," said Jack disgustedly. "Why can't you
+be sensible. You've our names and addresses on that paper I threw
+down to you. If you like I'll make a cash settlement right here for
+any damage we've done."
+
+"I'm goin' ter git yer in ther court," insisted the farmer sullenly.
+"Las' week some autermobubblists killed three uv my chickens, week
+afore thet I had a hog knocked off ther road. I'm er goin' ter git
+even on yer fer ther lot uv them."
+
+It was plain that the man was not to be moved by promises or
+persuasion. He had conceived in his mind a hatred against automobiles,
+with which, in a vague way, he classed airships and all such modern
+inventions. Jack thought, too, that Ezra Perkins was the kind of man
+who liked to shine out among his neighbors, and what better
+opportunity could he have to satisfy this ambition than by blossoming
+forth as a man who, single handed, had captured a great aircraft?
+
+The boys looked down. The farmer was pacing grimly up and down like a
+sentry, his eyes never leaving the Wondership.
+
+"I'd like to drop a bag of ballast on his head, the same as those
+balloonists did on Si's," muttered Tom.
+
+"Wouldn't do any good," said Jack. "It would only bounce off again."
+
+"I guess it would at that," agreed Tom with a grin.
+
+"I've half a mind to take a chance," said Jack suddenly.
+
+"And get a hole blown in the balloon bag," protested Tom. "We wouldn't
+be better off than before in that case."
+
+"I wonder if he'd really shoot or if he's only bluffing," mused Jack.
+
+"Take a look at him," advised Tom.
+
+Jack did. One glance was enough. There was no bluffing about the grim,
+overalled farmer. The very way in which he held his gun expressed
+positive determination not to let the boys escape.
+
+But as it so happened, by no action of the boys', matters were
+suddenly brought to a sharp crisis. Over the patch of woods beyond the
+farm there came a vagrant puff of wind. It was followed by a sharper
+gust.
+
+The Wondership swayed and then, before Jack could check the motion,
+drifted off the roof like a piece of thistledown blown by the wind.
+Instinctively, to check the downward motion, Jack's hand sought the
+gas valve. With a hiss the volatile vapor rushed into the bag.
+
+The big aircraft shot up like an arrow. For a second the farmer stood
+paralyzed at the suddenness of it all. His farm hands lounged about,
+gaping and looking upward like country folks at a fireworks display.
+
+Then, without any warning:
+
+"Bang!"
+
+The farmer let loose with both barrels at once. But the Wondership
+still rose.
+
+All at once, from below, came a yell of surprise and terror. The boys
+looked over the side. As they did so they uttered simultaneous gasps
+of consternation.
+
+The trailing grapnel, for Tom had forgotten to tie it back in place
+in the excitement, had caught the farmer by the waistband of his
+overalls and he was being carried skyward by the Wondership, dangling
+at the end of the anchor rope like some sprawling spider.
+
+His wife, screaming at the top of her voice, rushed from the kitchen
+door.
+
+"Hey, you come back with my husband!" she shouted.
+
+"Lemme go! Lemme go!" bawled the farmer as loudly as he could, for,
+held securely by his stout overalls, he was carried high above his own
+buildings. He kicked and struggled furiously.
+
+"Keep still," shouted Jack, in serious alarm, from the side of the
+Wondership. "Keep still or you'll kick yourself off."
+
+The farmer had sense enough to obey. He hung upside down like a limp
+scarecrow, while his farm hands gaped up at him and the hired girl was
+busy pouring buckets of water over his wife who was in hysterics.
+
+"Gracious, now we've done it!" gasped Tom in dismay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AN INVOLUNTARY AERONAUT.
+
+
+"Steady, Tom, steady," warned Jack, as he set the pumps to work
+drawing gas from the bag into the reservoir.
+
+The Wondership, her buoyancy thus diminished, began to descend.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Tom.
+
+"Drop our passenger," said Jack, with a grin he could not suppress,
+for the struggling farmer was within a few feet of the ground now and
+even if he did kick himself loose, for his struggles had begun again,
+he could not have hurt himself much.
+
+"Back up till we get over that haystack," said Jack, "and then play
+out rope till we lower him. It'll make a nice soft jumping-off place."
+
+Tom obeyed, pulling a reverse lever. The Wondership, steered with
+skill by Jack's practiced hand, backed slowly up. At length they hung
+directly over the haystack. Jack turned and nodded. Tom sprang to the
+rope and lowered the indignant farmer into the soft hay. The man lost
+no time in disentangling himself. Then he sprang to his feet and began
+hurling vituperation at them at the top of his lungs.
+
+"I'll have ther law on yer fer this," he yelled. "Tryin' ter kidnap me
+and bustin' down my barn. I'll see whether such goin's on is allowed
+in ther sufferin' state uv Massachusetts, yew see if I don't, consarn
+yer. I'll----"
+
+But the Wondership, bearing the two boys who could not help laughing
+heartily, although they feared serious consequences might come of the
+accident, was winging its way onward out of earshot of the not
+unnaturally indignant Ezra Perkins.
+
+They passed Rayburn before Jack noticed a peculiar smell in the
+atmosphere.
+
+It was leaking gas. Then, for the first time, he recollected that the
+farmer might have hit the gas bag above them with his double shots,
+although, till then, there had been no indication that such was the
+case.
+
+He called Tom to the wheel, explaining his suspicions and clambered
+out on the rigging to see if he could find any holes in the balloon.
+It would have made a less steady boy dizzy and sick to stand on the
+edge of the Wondership, clinging to one of the supports that held the
+body of the craft to the gas-bag, while the whole affair plunged and
+swayed five hundred feet above the earth. But Jack, used as he was to
+navigating the air, felt none of these qualms.
+
+His suspicions were speedily confirmed. There was a jagged hole in the
+underbody of the balloon, from which gas was rushing. Jack's face grew
+grave. The situation was dangerous.
+
+He knew, as does every balloonist, that out-rushing gas can make an
+electric spark in the atmosphere which, in turn, ignites the gas
+itself, sometimes with fatal results. Experts in aeronautics attribute
+the disasters befalling the long series of Zeppelins, the giant
+German dirigibles, to this cause.
+
+"Tom, we must go down. Drop at once," he said. "That old fellow
+succeeded in blowing a hole in us all right."
+
+The pumps were set to work and the Wondership fell rapidly. They
+dropped in a field by the roadside, landing on the running wheels as
+lightly as a feather, thanks to the shock absorbers, similar to those
+of an automobile, with which the Wondership was equipped.
+
+"Now for the repair kit," said Jack, rummaging a locker.
+
+He soon had balloon silk, big shears, a quick-drying gum solution and
+a pot of gasproof varnish, ready for the job of patching up the hole.
+But first they had to empty the big bag of gas. This was speedily
+done, for already enough had escaped to wrinkle the bag like a walnut,
+with hollows and creases.
+
+Jack cut out a patch of balloon silk large enough to fit the hole and
+spread it with the adhesive gum solution. This he placed inside the
+hole, spreading it out so that when pressure was applied it would be
+pressed firmly against the aperture. Then he coated the patch with the
+gasproof varnish, and both boys sat down to give the job time to
+"set."
+
+Their eyes turned idly to the high-road. It was about noon and there
+was a heavy sort of silence in the air. Far on the horizon they could
+make out great billowy masses of white cloud. Piled and castellated
+against the sky they assumed all kinds of odd shapes.
+
+"Thunder heads," said Jack. "We shall have a storm before to-night."
+
+"It's sultry enough for anything," said Tom, taking off his cap and
+mopping his forehead. "I'd hate to be walking in this weather like
+that fellow yonder."
+
+A man had come into sight, plodding along with bent head and eyes on
+the ground as if he was very tired. The gray dust of the road coated
+him from head to foot. He walked with a kind of dragging gait.
+
+Over his shoulder he carried some sort of a bundle on a stick. His hat
+was a broad sombrero, like a cowboy's. It was a kind of headgear
+seldom seen in the east and attracted the boys' attention. Round the
+man's neck was a red handkerchief, the only spot of color on his
+dust-covered person. He had a great yellow beard and rather long,
+unkempt hair.
+
+"Tramp," hazarded Tom.
+
+Jack shook his head.
+
+"Doesn't look like that to me somehow," he said. "I rather think----"
+
+Round the corner whizzed a big red automobile. It was coming fast. The
+driver, a young man, had his head turned and was talking to three
+companions who sat in the tonneau. He did not see the dusty traveler
+in the road ahead.
+
+The boys set up a shout.
+
+"Look out! you'll run him down. Look out----"
+
+But their caution came too late. At top speed the auto struck the
+wayfarer, and before the boys' horrified eyes he was thrown high in
+the air, to fall, a confused sprawl of legs and arms, at the wayside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BY THE ROADSIDE.
+
+
+The boys ran forward across the few yards of meadow that intervened
+between the Wondership and the roadway. The autoists did not,
+apparently, notice them. They had stopped the car and were looking
+back.
+
+"Come on and let's get out of this quick," one of them, a hawk-faced
+youth, with a long motoring duster on, was shouting to the driver.
+
+"Yes, let's beat it while the going's good, Bill," came from his
+companion as he addressed the driver of the car.
+
+"I guess we'd better," said the man addressed as Bill.
+
+Before the boys could intervene the car was on its way again, at top
+speed, leaving the unconscious form of its victim at the roadside.
+
+"Of all the cold-blooded scoundrels!" gasped Jack, horrified at such
+callousness.
+
+"Never mind them now," advised Tom. "Let's see if this poor fellow is
+badly hurt. He may even be----"
+
+He did not finish the sentence, but Jack knew what he meant. Hastily
+the boys scrambled down the low bank that separated the field from the
+road. They ran quickly to the man's side. To their great relief, for
+they had feared that he might have been killed, the man was breathing.
+But his breath came pantingly from his parted lips and there was a bad
+cut on his forehead.
+
+"Get some water from the creek yonder," said Jack, and Tom hastened up
+the road to where, beneath the small wooden bridge, there flowed a
+rivulet of water.
+
+He was soon back, with his handkerchief well soaked, and with an old
+can, that he had been lucky enough to find, filled with water. They
+bathed the man's wound and then bound it up as best they could. But he
+still lay senseless.
+
+"Now what's to be done?" asked Tom.
+
+"We ought to get him over to the Wondership and rush him to the
+hospital at Nestorville," said Jack.
+
+"Yes, that would be the thing to do. But he's too heavy for us to
+carry," objected Tom.
+
+"Why not fly over here alongside him. I guess we could lift him in;
+that patch ought to hold by this time," suggested Jack.
+
+"That's a good idea. What a pack of cowardly sneaks those chaps in
+that car were."
+
+"I wish we could have stopped them. It would give me real pleasure to
+see a gang like that get its just deserts. They might have killed this
+poor fellow."
+
+The unconscious man was powerfully built, with face tanned brown above
+a yellow beard, from exposure to sun and wind. As Jack had said, he
+did not look like a tramp. Suddenly the boy noticed lying near him an
+object which had evidently fallen from the man's pocket when he was
+struck and flung through the air by the auto.
+
+It was a small cylinder, apparently made of lead, and about three
+inches long. Jack picked it up, and for the time being did not attempt
+to examine it but thrust it into his pocket for safe keeping. Little
+did either of the boys think how much that little cylinder was to mean
+to them, and how it was to influence some of the most important
+adventures of their lives.
+
+Making the man as comfortable as they could, by rolling up their coats
+and placing them under his head, the boys hurried back to the
+Wondership. When they arrived there they saw that a feature of the
+radio 'phone, which has not yet been mentioned, was working in urgent
+appeal. This was a tiny red electric light attached to the top of the
+case containing the sensitive parts of the apparatus.
+
+By an ingenious device, worked as a call signal from the transmitting
+station, the electric waves converted a lighting circuit for this
+purpose.
+
+It was winking and twinkling, and Jack knew that his father was
+trying to call them.
+
+He sent out some flashes by starting the dynamo going and pressing a
+key devised for the purpose. This, he knew, would cause a similar
+light attached to his father's apparatus to flash a reply. This done
+he waited a second and then adjusted the receivers to his ears.
+
+"What's the matter?" came his father's voice.
+
+Jack gave him a rapid account of the accident, not stopping just then
+to say anything about the incident of the farmer and his barn.
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" asked his father.
+
+"He appears to be seriously hurt," said Jack. "I was thinking of
+rushing him to the hospital at Nestorville."
+
+"That seems to be the best plan," said his father. "By the way, did
+those autoists get clear away?"
+
+"I'm afraid so. They never even waited a second to see if the man was
+badly injured. They----"
+
+Jack suddenly stopped short. An inspiration had come to him. The
+accident had happened on a road that, as he knew, led straight through
+Nestorville. He had thought of a plan to bring the autoists to book
+for their callousness and negligence.
+
+"Dad--oh, dad!" he called.
+
+"Yes, what is it?" came back Mr. Chadwick's voice.
+
+"Those fellows will pass through Nestorville. I had a flash of the
+number of the car. It was 4206 Mass. It's a red car and a powerful
+one, with three men in it."
+
+"What do you want to do?" asked Mr. Chadwick.
+
+"Can't you 'phone to the Nestorville police, telling them what has
+happened and have those fellows stopped. I'm not vindictive, but they
+ought to be brought to book for running down a man and then speeding
+off and leaving him like that."
+
+"I agree with you," replied Mr. Chadwick. "I'll do so at once.
+Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," said Jack and "rang off."
+
+"That was a great idea of yours, Jack, old boy," approved Tom. "I hope
+they land those fellows."
+
+"Of course it was an accident," said Jack, "but that fellow who was
+driving was too busy talking to watch the road, and then going off
+like that--they deserve all they get."
+
+Examination of the patch showed that it would hold fast and the bag
+was refilled. As soon as it was sufficiently inflated, the Wondership
+sailed over to the road and was brought down alongside the still
+unconscious man.
+
+"Looks as if he's badly hurt," said Tom with some anxiety.
+
+"It does. His skull may be fractured," agreed Jack. "If he is
+seriously injured those fellows may get into trouble."
+
+It required all the boys' strength to raise the man and get him into
+the Wondership. Here they laid him out on the floor of the rear
+section. They had just done this when the red light signaled Jack
+again. It was Mr. Chadwick. He had notified the Nestorville police
+force, consisting of a chief and two men, and they were on the lookout
+for the offending auto.
+
+"Good," said Jack. "Say, dad, the radio telephone has shown its
+usefulness on the first day out, hasn't it?"
+
+They were soon in the air once more. The run to Nestorville was made
+quickly. On the outskirts of the town they came to earth and deflated
+the balloon bag, since the hospital stood in a group of trees and it
+would have been impossible to make a landing there. The Wondership was
+converted into an auto and sent speeding toward the main street of the
+village.
+
+Suddenly they heard a whir of wheels behind them and an impatient
+tooting of a horn. They looked back and uttered a simultaneous cry of
+astonishment.
+
+The red auto that had run down the yellow-bearded man was behind them.
+Its occupants were shouting and sounding their horn impatiently for
+the right of way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+MAKING ENEMIES.
+
+
+The road was narrow where they were, and unless the boys' machine was
+run to one side of the road there was no chance for the red machine to
+pass. Jack made it clear that he didn't intend to let them.
+
+He paid no attention to the shouts that came from behind.
+
+"Hey, you kids, with that queer-looking car, get off the road and give
+a real machine a chance to get by," shouted the driver, he who had
+been addressed as Bill.
+
+Jack did not turn his head.
+
+"I'll knock your head off if you don't turn out--and turn out quick!"
+came another shout.
+
+Still the boys did not pay any attention. In this order they came into
+Nestorville. Lined up, with a look of stern determination on his
+face, and with his nickel star of office newly polished, was Chief
+Biff Bivins. Behind him were Lena Hardy and Joe Curley, his "force."
+
+"Say, boys," hailed Chief Biff, as the boys rolled up abreast of him
+and his men, "hain't seen hair nor hide of that car your dad was arter
+'phonin' me about."
+
+"Well, you soon will, chief," said Jack.
+
+"Haow do yew know that?" asked the chief, his little eyes blinking
+curiously.
+
+"Because it's right behind us now," declared Jack. "It's that red
+one."
+
+"Ther dickens you say. How'd you come ter git erhead of 'em?"
+
+"They must have stopped to fix a tire or something," said Jack.
+
+But Biff was paying no attention to him. The majesty of the law was
+strong upon him. Calling his minions to his side he stepped into the
+middle of the road in front of the red car.
+
+"Get out of the way!" shouted the man who was driving.
+
+"Not much I won't," declared Biff valorously. "Halt that gasoline
+gadabout o' yourn instanter."
+
+"What for, you old Rube?"
+
+"Old Rube am I?" sputtered Biff, feeling that the law had been
+insulted in his person, "jes' fer thet yer under 'rest."
+
+"What for?" demanded the driver of the red car angrily.
+
+"Fer running daown and grievously wounding a man and then speedin' off
+without stoppin' ter see if you'd killed him dead or what all. That's
+what fer."
+
+The driver of the red machine lost his blustering tone.
+
+"Why, there's some mistake," he stammered, his face very pale,
+"I--er--we--er--that is, we didn't run anybody down."
+
+"Oh, yes, you did," said Jack. "We saw you, and what's more we've got
+the man you struck right here in our car. You're a fine pack of
+cowards to run off like that. If we hadn't happened along he might
+have lain there for hours before help came."
+
+"You saw us!" gasped the driver of the car, losing his bravado
+completely. "Well, I might as well admit we did run a man down. But we
+didn't think he was badly hurt and so we put on all speed to rush into
+town here and get a doctor for him. We'd have been here sooner only
+one of our tires punctured."
+
+"Thet's a dern good story," said the chief, "but you'll hev ter
+'splain that ter ther squire. Come on with me ter ther court-house.
+Too bad fer you thet them Chadwick boys had some sort of a do-funny
+dingus on their sky buggy that talks through the air, otherwise you'd
+hev got clar' away."
+
+The man had, by this time, got out of the car which they halted at the
+side of the street. A crowd of curious villagers gathered and were
+staring at the scene and the actors in it.
+
+At Chief Biff's words the driver of the red car flashed an angry look
+at the boys. His companions looked equally vindictive.
+
+"So, it's to you we owe our arrest, is it?" he said in a low voice,
+coming quite close to Jack. "All right. You'll hear from me later. I'm
+not going to forget you or that other kid, either. Do you understand?"
+
+Jack made no reply, and as he was anxious to get the injured man to
+the hospital as quickly as possible he drove off. At the institution
+the man was carried to a cot by two orderlies, and the doctor in
+charge told the boys that, so far as he could see, his injuries were
+not mortal, although he added that a fracture of the skull was
+possible.
+
+"In which case," he said, "his recovery is problematical. How did you
+happen to pick him up?" asked the doctor, who knew the boys quite
+well.
+
+Jack told him as briefly as he could, and received the physician's
+warm congratulations.
+
+"It was fortunate that you happened along," he said. "Otherwise a
+long exposure to the sun, unattended, might have resulted in the man's
+death. Have you any idea who he is?"
+
+"Not the least," replied Jack. "All that we know is that, just after
+he had plodded round the corner as if he was tired after walking a
+long way, that auto came whizzing round and struck him. Somehow he
+doesn't look like a tramp."
+
+"No, he doesn't," agreed the doctor. "However, he should be conscious
+to-morrow if there are no complications, and we can find out. One
+thing is certain, he ought to be grateful to you."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," laughed Jack, much relieved to hear that the
+man wasn't going to die. "It was all we could do."
+
+They drove back through the village. Outside the court-house was quite
+a crowd. Events were few and far between in sleepy Nestorville, and
+the arrest of the autoists had caused quite a sensation. From a friend
+in the crowd the boys learned that the three men were being arraigned
+before Squire Stevens.
+
+"Let's go in," suggested Tom.
+
+"All right," nodded Jack, and they climbed out of the Wondership and
+ascended the long steps leading into the court-house. As they entered
+Squire Stevens' court-room, Chief Bivins spied them.
+
+"Here they be now, Squire," he said. "Glad you came, boys. It saved me
+the trouble of serving subpoenas on you. These are the boys who saw
+the whole thing, judge."
+
+"Was it an accident?" asked Squire Stevens, a dignified-looking old
+man with an imposing white beard.
+
+"Yes, entirely so," said Jack, who did not bear any malice.
+
+"But after they had struck the man, these young men ran away?"
+
+"Yes," Jack was forced to admit. The men shot him a glance of hatred.
+
+"I understand you have been to the hospital," went on Squire Stevens.
+"Did you learn how badly the man they hit is hurt?"
+
+"The doctor told us that his injuries don't appear to be serious,"
+said Jack, "but that it was possible there might be complications."
+
+"In that case I shall have to hold you young men under bond," said the
+squire. "Will you be able to furnish it?"
+
+"In any amount," said the man who had driven the car, in a loud,
+boastful voice. "My father, Evans Masterson, owns the _Boston Moon,_
+the evening paper. If I can telephone to him he will soon get us out
+of this scrape."
+
+"Very well, then," said the Squire, frowning slightly at young
+Masterson's tone. "I shall fix your bond at $500, as you were driving
+the car and directly responsible for the accident, and that of your
+companions at $100 each."
+
+Young Masterson gave an ironical bow. Chief Biff Bivins escorted him
+to the telephone. The elder Masterson, who had had a good deal of
+experience with his son's escapades, at first administered a lecture
+over the 'phone which ended by his saying that he would come
+post-haste to Nestorville and extricate his son and his chums from
+their unpleasant fix.
+
+But the boys did not wait for this. As soon as the case was over they
+hastened back to the Wondership. The run home was made without
+incident and it was not till the Wondership was safely in its shed
+that Jack suddenly thought of the odd cylinder of lead that he had
+picked up by the man's side as he lay on the road.
+
+"I ought to have left it at the hospital," he thought, "but I entirely
+forgot it."
+
+He drew it out and looked at it. He now saw that the lead cylinder
+enclosed a glass vial carefully corked and sealed. The bottle was
+wrapped in flannel. Jack could not withstand the temptation of pulling
+it out and looking at it. He hardly knew what he had expected to see,
+but he was distinctly disappointed, as was Tom, to find that the
+carefully protected vial contained nothing more than some dark, almost
+black, stuff that looked like sand. In it were particles that
+glittered like mica.
+
+"Pshaw!" he exclaimed in a disappointed tone, "nothing but a bottle
+full of sand. Wonder why in the world that fellow carried trash like
+that so carefully wrapped up for?"
+
+The solution of the question, which was near at hand, was to have an
+important bearing on the lives of the Boy Inventors, and that in the
+immediate future.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE LEADEN TUBE.
+
+
+The following day, while they were experimenting and practicing with
+the radio telephone, the boys received word that the man in the
+hospital was conscious and wished to see them, if possible.
+
+"Perhaps now we shall get some explanation of that queer tubeful of
+sand," said Jack, as he hung up the telephone receiver, having
+informed the physician that they would be at the hospital shortly.
+
+"It's certainly a queer sort of thing for a man to carry about--a
+glass vial full of black grit so carefully protected, unless he is
+crazy or something," commented Tom.
+
+"I think that there is some explanation back of all this," said Jack,
+"and for my part the sooner we get to the hospital, the better I shall
+be pleased. The man told the doctor he was a miner and his name is
+Zeb Cummings. Perhaps that sand is gold-bearing or something like
+that."
+
+"That might be the case," agreed Tom.
+
+The boys decided to take out the electric car. It was in perfect
+running order and the indicator showed that there was plenty of
+electricity in storage for the start. They told Mr. Chadwick where
+they were going and then rolled out of the High Towers gates onto the
+broad, smooth road bordered with pleasant green elms.
+
+They bowled along smoothly and silently with the car working as
+perfectly as delicate clockwork. They had gone about a mile from the
+house and were on a steep grade which the car took as easily as if it
+had been going down hill, when their attention was attracted by a
+sudden shout from the vicinity.
+
+Jack brought the car to a halt. The voice came again.
+
+"Hi! Help me! Ouch! Help!"
+
+"What in the world is the matter now?" wondered Tom.
+
+"Somebody in trouble in that field yonder. We'd better get out and see
+what's up," proposed Jack.
+
+The shouts seemed to issue from beyond a high bank at one side of the
+road. On its summit was a hedge which prevented the boys seeing what
+was going on in the field that lay beyond.
+
+As they got out of the car, however, Jack spied a bicycle at one side
+of the road. A satchel that he remembered very well was slung from its
+frame.
+
+"It's the professor in trouble again!" declared Jack.
+
+"I do believe you are right," replied Tom as they scrambled up the
+bank. "That's sure enough his wheel."
+
+They found a gate in the hedge and on the other side an odd sight met
+their eyes. Kneeling on the ground was the professor. His right arm
+was thrust almost up to the shoulder into a hole in the ground. He
+was shouting lustily for help and appeared to be imprisoned in his
+queer posture.
+
+"Some animal has got hold of his hand," cried Jack. "Come on, Tom."
+
+"Oh, boys, thank goodness you've come," gasped the scientist.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Jack.
+
+"I can't get my arm out of this hole," declared the professor.
+
+"How did you get it in?" asked Tom.
+
+"A fine specimen that I dropped accidentally rolled into it," was the
+reply. "I reached in to get it and now I can't get my hand out."
+
+"But you got it in easily enough," said Jack in a puzzled tone.
+
+"Ah, yes," replied the professor, "but then I didn't have my hand
+clenched. Now my fist is closed and I have the specimen in it. Oh,
+boys, it's a beauty. One of the finest I have ever seen. It shows
+distinct monolithic traces."
+
+"But if you don't drop it you can't get your hand out," argued Tom.
+
+"I know that. That's why I shouted for help," said the professor
+simply.
+
+"You'll have to let go of it," decided Jack, almost choking with
+laughter at the plight of the eccentric little man.
+
+"Let go of it? My dear sir," murmured the professor in a shocked tone,
+"this specimen is worth at least twenty dollars, not to speak of its
+scientific value."
+
+"But you can't stay here," said Jack decisively.
+
+"And I won't let go of the specimen," declared the professor with
+equal firmness.
+
+"What on earth are we to do?" said Jack, looking helplessly at Tom.
+
+Not far off Tom had noticed a man digging potatoes. It gave him an
+idea.
+
+"We can borrow that man's shovel and dig his arm out," he suggested.
+
+"It's about the only thing to do, I guess," said Jack. "You go and
+see if you can get it. I'll keep the professor company."
+
+Tom soon came back. The potato-digger accompanied him. The man was
+much interested in the eccentric man's plight.
+
+"If that ain't the beatingest I ever heard on," he remarked, gazing at
+the professor, and then he tapped his head significantly and looked at
+the boys in a knowing way.
+
+"Nobody home, eh?" he said with a grin. Fortunately the professor did
+not hear him; but the boys could hardly keep from laughing outright as
+they set to work with the spade. A few minutes of brisk digging set
+the professor at liberty and he was able to stand upright and
+triumphantly exhibit a small black rock which looked in no way
+remarkable, but which, it was evident, he esteemed highly.
+
+"Ah, my little gem," he said, gazing at it fondly. "You thought you'd
+escape me; but you didn't. A wonderfully fine specimen, boys."
+
+"Tell yer what," said the yokel, from whom they had borrowed the
+spade, "I'll pay you fifty cents a day to clean up my back pasture
+yonder. It's chock full of them black rocks."
+
+"It is?" exclaimed the professor eagerly. "I must visit it some day.
+It would be worth writing a paper about. Most remarkable. A whole
+field of these stones. Well, well, this is a great day for science.
+But how did you boys happen to come along so opportunely?"
+
+Jack explained, and then, suddenly, he thought of the tube of
+queer-looking black sand. Possibly the professor would know what it
+was. He drew it out and briefly narrated how he came in possession of
+it. The professor took the little glass vial out of its protecting
+lead and flannel. He adjusted his glasses and held it up to the light.
+Then he uncorked it and sprinkled a few grains on the palm of his
+hand.
+
+He regarded it carefully for a few minutes and then drew out a huge
+magnifying glass. The next instant he dropped his scientific calm and
+uttered a sharp exclamation of astonishment.
+
+"Where is the man who owns this?" he exclaimed. "We must see him at
+once."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+IN THE HOSPITAL
+
+
+"We are on our way to see him now," said Jack. "He is in the
+Nestorville hospital."
+
+"May I go with you?" asked the professor, with astonishing eagerness
+for him.
+
+"Why, of course. But that black sand," said Jack. "What is
+it--gold-bearing material of some kind?"
+
+"Gold!" exclaimed the professor with fine scorn, "gold would be dross
+beside it. Of course I haven't analyzed it yet, but if it is what I
+think it is, it is the most valuable stuff in the world."
+
+The boys exchanged bewildered glances. Clearly their discovery of the
+injured man, Zeb Cummings, had an aspect they had not hitherto
+suspected. But the professor refused to tell them what the sand was,
+or what he thought it was, till he had seen Zeb Cummings himself.
+
+Leaving the potato-digger under the firm impression that they were
+all crazy, they hurried back to the road, the professor's bicycle was
+placed in the tonneau, and Jack drove just within the speed law to the
+hospital.
+
+They found the injured man sitting up in bed, his great yellow beard
+gleaming like gold. His head was bandaged but even the pallor induced
+by the accident had not materially altered the ruddy glow of his thick
+coat of tan.
+
+"So these are the boys who saved me," he said, extending a big,
+gnarled hand. "Shake, pardners. The doc here tells me if I'd laid much
+longer out there in the sun, there might hev been a first-class
+funeral fer Zeb Cummings."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," said Jack easily. "I'm only glad that we came
+along when we did."
+
+"Well, you sure acted different from them other varmints," said Zeb
+with deep conviction. "The doc tole me all about it."
+
+His face suddenly grew grave as he changed the subject.
+
+"Did you find anything on the ground thereabouts after I got knocked
+out?" he asked.
+
+"What sort of a thing?" asked Jack.
+
+"Oh, nothing that looked very valuable. Jes' a little lead roll with a
+bottle full of what looked like black sand in it."
+
+"Got it right here," said Jack, producing the bottle which the
+professor had given back to him.
+
+"Glory be!" exclaimed Zeb Cummings, as he took the lead-wrapped vial
+as though it was something precious. "I was afeard that if anyone
+found it they might hev thrown it away, bein' as it don't look as if
+it amounted ter anything much."
+
+"Is it valuable?" asked Jack, who could not restrain his curiosity.
+
+"That's jes' what I don't rightly know," rejoined Zeb. "I reckon I'd
+better tell yer how I come ter git it an' then you kin judge fer
+yourselves."
+
+"We'd like to hear," said Jack, who had felt all along that there was
+some mystery about the yellow-bearded giant.
+
+"All right! Sit down and I'll tell yer ther yarn. But say, who is yer
+friend? No offense meant, ye understand."
+
+"This is Professor Jerushah Jenks," said Jack.
+
+"What, the guy that knows all about rocks and such like?" burst out
+the miner.
+
+"I believe I have achieved some small fame in that line," said the
+professor.
+
+"Wa'al if this don't beat pay dirt I'm a Piute," exclaimed the miner.
+"Give us your hand, Professor. I was on my way ter see you when that
+thar buzz wagon busted me higher nor a turkey buzzard."
+
+"On your way to see me?" echoed the professor in amazed tones.
+
+"Yes, siree bob, that very identical thing," was the bronzed miner's
+reply.
+
+"But I don't quite understand. You see I----"
+
+"That's all right, Professor. We'll git down ter pay dirt direc'ly,"
+said the miner. "You know of the Scientific Society in Bosting, of
+course?"
+
+"I am a member of that body, sir," was the dignified reply of the
+little man.
+
+"Well, they giv' me your name. Said you was the biggest bug on rocks,
+minerals and sich in the country and so I sets out to pay a call on
+you."
+
+"But you were many miles from where I live," said the professor. "The
+railroad, or the trolley----"
+
+"Don't carry folks for nothing," interrupted Zeb, "and nothing's my
+capital right now."
+
+"You mean that you were walking from Boston?" asked the professor.
+
+"That's right," was the reply. "Landed there on ship from round the
+Horn last week. Got paid off but some sneak thief in the boarding
+house I was stopping at got my roll. So I had to hoof it."
+
+"But what did you want with me?" asked the professor.
+
+"I wanted you ter tell me ef that thar stuff in the glass tube is
+worth anything or nothing," was the reply.
+
+"Why, do you know where there is more of it?" asked the professor, and
+the boys could see that he was oddly excited, although preserving an
+appearance of outward calm.
+
+"Yes, siree," was the emphatic reply. "I know whar thar's enough of it
+to load a freight train."
+
+"Shades of Huxley!" gasped the professor, actually turning pale. "Do
+you mean that?"
+
+"I sure do, Professor. It's all down on a map what Blue Nose Sanchez
+give me afore he passed in his checks."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A TALE OF THE COLORADO.
+
+
+"Do you fully realize what you are telling me?" asked the professor.
+The doctor and the nurse had left the room, and the miner, the
+scientist and the boys were alone.
+
+"Course I do," was the rejoinder of the yellow-bearded giant with the
+bandaged head. "There ought ter be a fortune in it 'cording to what
+Blue Nose Sanchez said. Was he lyin', Professor?"
+
+"I don't think so. But tell us your story," urged the man of science.
+
+"Well, it begins some months ago. I was prospecting down along the
+Colorado River. It was in a mighty bad place. Don't rightly know just
+how I ever got thar, but thar I was. Wonder was I wasn't killed ten
+times over 'fore I got to whar I was. But I guess I'm pretty tough.
+
+"That Colorado River is a pretty tough place down where I was.
+Nothing but desert all around, and just a swift dashing current at the
+bottom of a canyon that looks like it went into the middle of the
+earth with steep, dark walls that seem to go straight plum up to the
+sky.
+
+"But I was lured on by the thought of making a big strike. At last I
+got down to a place where the banks was so high and steep that it was
+like twilight even at noon. Grub was gittin' to be a question with me,
+and I'd about made up my mind to turn back, but I thought I'd make one
+more last try.
+
+"I set to work on a rocky bank with my pick but nary a color--that's
+what we call a trace of gold--could I uncover.
+
+"Wa'al, says I to myself, it's up stakes fer you, Zeb, unless you want
+to starve afore you git back to civilization. But as it was evenin'
+then I decided to stay whar I was that night and strike back early the
+next day.
+
+"Here's whar Blue Nose Sanchez comes inter ther story. They called
+him 'blue nose,' I guess, because of a premature blast that had blown
+powder into his nose and turned it that color. Anyway, he was a mighty
+homely specimen.
+
+"It was just gittin' light in the canyon, although it must have been
+broad day up above, when I hears an almighty hollering up the gulch.
+The next thing I knows, round a bend comes a small boat. There's two
+men in it. They must have been crazy to try to make the passage, for
+the river is just a mass of rapids and whirlpools, and I never heard
+of anyone trying to shoot 'em.
+
+"But thar was these two fellows in this boat, and they was scared,
+too, I kin tell you. Wa'al, I stood thar like a stuffed pig on the
+bank watching 'em as they came toward me at the speed of an express
+train. Suddenly one of 'em, the chap that was trying to steer, twisted
+the oar he was guiding the boat with and it cracked under his weight.
+He went overboard in a flash.
+
+"The next moment, with a yell of fright that I kin hear yit, the boat
+was hurried past me on that water that boiled like yeast in a kittle,
+and in a flash it had disappeared round another bend. What became of
+it I never knew, but it must have been upset and the man in it
+drowned. No boat could have lasted long in that water, even with an
+oar to steer it, and that was gone.
+
+"I waded out inter ther water as far as I dared and by some freak of
+the current the man who had toppled out of the boat came within my
+reach. I grabbed him and dragged him ashore, more dead than alive. I
+done what I could for him and he came to after a while. That was how I
+met Blue Nose Sanchez.
+
+"Well, sir, Blue Nose was a mighty sick man, even then. He had fever
+and was a ravin' lunatic at times, but at intervals he made out to
+tell me suthin' of his story. Him and his partner, a fellow he called
+Foxy Joe, was on their way to find a little island down ther river
+where no white man but only one had been. This man was a friend of
+Foxy Joe's and the two met up in Yuma. Foxy's friend had a lot to tell
+him about a wonderful island some Injuns had told him about whar
+there was some sort of mysterious mineral. By what Joe could make out
+this mineral was nuthin' more nor less than radium."
+
+"Radium!" exclaimed the boys.
+
+"That's right," went on the miner. "Foxy's friend allowed that there
+was cartloads of it lyin' loose thar 'cording to the description the
+Injuns give him, and he showed Foxy a sample of the stuff. That sample
+is in this little lead-wrapped bottle. It's wrapped in lead 'cos
+otherwise it 'ud make sores on you when you carry it about. It's
+workin', workin' all the time, frum what I kin make out.
+
+"Well, 'cordin' ter ther way Blue Nose Sanchez tells it, Foxy and the
+man who knew about the island and had a rough plan of it the Injuns
+drew fer him, had a fight, and Foxy kills him, or thinks he has. Blue
+Nose sees it and sees Foxy take the map and the little lead-wrapped
+bottle off the body. He suspects somethin' and tells Foxy that he'll
+give him up to the law if he don't let him in on it. So Foxy tells
+him all about it and him and Sanchez, who was then a mule rustler,
+agrees ter go partners and go git ther radium, or whatever it is.
+
+"They builds this boat, the one that disappeared, and in order that
+Foxy shouldn't play no tricks, that bein' his disposition, Sanchez
+'lows he'll take both the sample and the map. Foxy sees no way out of
+it but to give in and that's the way it's fixed.
+
+"The boat is taken out of Yuma in sections and then put together in a
+place whar nobody ain't likely to come nosin' around. Then they starts
+out on what I guess was the most darn-fool enterprise any two locoed
+fortune-hunters ever undertook. How it ended you know. They both got
+fever, but Sanchez was the worst. He died that same evening, his
+tumble in the water havin' made him worse. I buried him there as best
+I could and then, as he had wished, I takes the sample and the map.
+
+"'Some day,' he told me, just afore he closed his eyes for good,
+'you'll be glad you saved me, even though it was too late.'
+
+"Well, I beat it back and get out of the canyon more dead than alive
+and finally make a small strike. I go to San Francisco with it and try
+to git ther stuff analyzed, but everyone I tole about it laughed at me
+and said I was crazy. So, thinks I, I'll come East. My money was about
+all gone, so I shipped afore ther mast on a Cape Horn ship, and got
+here.
+
+"Now, you have me tale, old top," grinned the good-natured miner, and
+added: "Well, has my toe-and-heeling been worth its salt?"
+
+The professor nodded solemnly.
+
+"What is it?" cried Jack, his heart beating with a strange, wild hope.
+
+Tom and Zeb echoed Jack's eager question.
+
+"My friends," declared the little man of science pompously, "we have
+reason to believe that a wonderful discovery has been made, namely,
+Z.2.X."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ZEB CUMMINGS.
+
+
+"Z.2.X., the most radio-active stuff in the world!" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"I suppose that approximately describes it," said the professor, "but
+what do you know about it?"
+
+Jack explained how ardently his father had wished for the missing
+element to make his system of radio telephony the most efficient in
+use.
+
+"Well, if what Sanchez said was true, and the map is right, there is
+plenty of it right on that island," said the miner.
+
+"Yes, that may all be," objected the professor, "but how are you going
+to get at it?"
+
+"Wa'al that's a poser. You can't reach it in a boat and you can't
+reach it over the desert," said Zeb. "The country all round there is
+dry as an oven and, anyhow, if you got to ther banks of ther Colorado
+right by ther island ther's no way of gitting _down_ to ther island.
+Sanchez says that the Injuns told Foxy's friend that a long time ago,
+when first they found the stuff on the island, there was a way of
+getting down to it. But an earthquake sunk the river bed and nobody
+had been thar since the Injuns that found it. He said that they first
+come to take notice of it by reason of the way it shined at night. But
+only a few of the tribe would go near on account of their thinking the
+place was haunted."
+
+"Have you got that map?" asked the professor.
+
+"Yes, if you'll reach my coat I'll show it you," said the miner.
+
+Jack gave him the ragged garment off a hook at the back of the door.
+Zeb fumbled in the pockets for a minute and then brought out a knife.
+
+"A rip more or less won't make no difference," he said, and cut a
+slash down the lining. There, carefully stowed inside, where it could
+not be suspected, was a folded, time-yellowed paper.
+
+The miner opened it slowly and spread it out on the counterpane. The
+boys, not without a sense of shock, noted a dark, rusty-looking stain
+upon it. It struck them that the marks might be the life blood of the
+treacherous Foxy's friend who had met a tragic end in Yuma.
+
+Zeb, with a broad and blackened forefinger, traced the course of the
+Colorado. At length his finger paused at an island marked in red.
+There was some fantastic Indian lettering, or sign-drawing, about it,
+and underneath, in a white man's handwriting, were the words:
+"Rattlesnake Island."
+
+"I reckon Foxy Joe's friend must hev written that in," commented Zeb.
+
+"It looks that way," said the professor, who had poured the sample of
+mineral-bearing sand back into the vial and restored it to Zeb
+Cummings.
+
+"Rattlesnake Island," repeated Jack. "Are there any rattlers down that
+way?"
+
+"Yes, and gila monsters and tarantulas and centipedes," replied Zeb
+cheerfully. "But you soon get used to 'em."
+
+Some other islands were marked on the map, but Rattlesnake Island was
+the only one designated by name.
+
+"That must be the place whar all that stuff is, then," decided Zeb. "I
+wish thar was some way of gittin' thar."
+
+"If there is even only a small fraction of the mineral-bearing sand
+there," said the professor, "there's a fortune in it."
+
+"Wa'al if you can't git it out what good is it?" said Zeb
+philosophically. "Anyhow, I'm glad that Sanchez spoke the truth with
+his dying words. Maybe thar is some way, except by water, in spite of
+what he said."
+
+"Maybe there is," said Jack. "It seems a shame to think of all that
+rich stuff lying there neglected and unobtainable."
+
+"It does indeed," agreed the professor. "In that sample I find traces
+of metals from which filaments for electric lights could be made and
+substances invaluable in medicine for X-ray purposes as well as the
+Z.2.X. which your father is convinced would make the radio telephone
+as practical as the wireless telegraph."
+
+They would like to have stayed there all the morning poring over the
+map and asking further questions of the rugged miner, but at that
+moment the nurse came in and declared that the injured man must have
+quiet.
+
+And so there, for the present, the matter rested. The professor
+departed for his home greatly excited over the events of the morning,
+but his excitement was a little allayed by the fear that he would be
+late for his mid-day meal with dire results from Miss Melissa.
+
+As for the boys, they could talk of nothing else. The idea of that
+lonely island, lying at the bottom of an unscalable canyon in the
+midst of a burning, desolate desert, appealed powerfully to their
+imaginations. Their minds were in a whirl over the strange coincidence
+that had brought them in contact with a man who knew where possibly
+inexhaustible supplies of the mysterious Z.2.X. lay ready for the
+taking, provided it could be reached.
+
+"I'd give a whole lot to be able to fix up an expedition to go out
+there and get that stuff," said Jack with a sigh.
+
+"So would I," agreed Tom. "But I guess, as Zeb Cummings said, it will
+be a long time before anyone sets foot on Rattlesnake Island."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+IN THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+That afternoon Jack broached to his father the events of the morning.
+Mr. Chadwick's enthusiasm may be imagined as his son told him of the
+professor's hasty analysis of the contents of Zeb Cumming's glass
+vial.
+
+But there remained the insuperable obstacle of the remoteness of the
+island where the deposits lay, and the difficulties--in fact, almost
+the impossibilities--that barred the way. For the time being, however,
+the matter was set aside while further experiments with the radio
+telephone were conducted. As a means of increased transmitting power,
+Mr. Chadwick had in mind a series of sending devices attached to one
+mouthpiece. In this way he believed he could at least partially
+overcome the resistance of the atmosphere, and get a higher percentage
+of current.
+
+He had been working on the idea all the morning and was anxious for a
+test. The Wondership was, therefore, wheeled out, and before long the
+boys were in the air once more. As before, they sailed in the
+direction of Rayburn. As they passed above the farm where they had met
+with their adventure the day before, they turned to each other with a
+laugh.
+
+Below them they could see men working on the damaged roof of the barn
+and Tom burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter as he recalled
+the queer sight the farmer presented dangling from the grapnel high
+above his broad acres.
+
+"That reminds me," said Jack. "We must send him some money for that
+roof."
+
+"How about his personal feelings?" grinned Tom.
+
+"I guess he wiped that score out when he blazed away at the balloon
+bag."
+
+"Just the same, I think we'd better go pretty high up," advised Tom.
+"He might fancy trying another shot at us."
+
+"That's so," agreed Jack, studying the men moving about far below.
+
+He pulled a lever and the Wondership began to rise. It was as well he
+did so perhaps, for as they shot upward they could see that their
+presence had been noted. They watched the men scurrying about and
+pointing upward. But whether the Wondership was too high, or his
+animosity had cooled after his involuntary ascension, the farmer made
+no hostile demonstration, and they were soon out of Perkins' sight.
+
+Apparently the new device worked fine, for all through the afternoon,
+at various heights and distances, they kept in perfect touch with Mr.
+Chadwick. Every intonation of his voice was borne plainly to their
+ears, Tom at times taking the wheel and the receivers while Jack
+relieved him at the engines.
+
+The storm which had threatened the night before, still was hovering
+about, as was evidenced by the white thunderheads piled on the
+horizon. But the electricity in the air did not, as is sometimes the
+case, interfere with the powerful impulses sent out from workshop and
+airship. Although the air felt heavy, the instruments worked
+perfectly.
+
+The boys flew over hill and dale for more than seventy miles prior to
+any perceptible weakening in the current. But once it began to fail it
+reduced rapidly until the messages were scarcely audible. But the
+experiments were kept up till almost dusk, when Mr. Chadwick told the
+boys to come back.
+
+As they returned the radio 'phones were kept working and as the
+distance decreased the impulses grew stronger.
+
+"If only I had some of that Z.2.X.," said Mr. Chadwick, "I believe it
+would be possible to send a message across the ocean or the
+continent."
+
+Not long after this Jack heard again from his father. It was a
+commonplace message enough. Sent merely to keep the air-line in
+operation.
+
+"Here is Jupe with the afternoon mail," he said.
+
+"Anything for us?" asked Jack, enjoying the novel sensation of
+talking through the air concerning such everyday matters.
+
+"Yes, there's one from Ned Nevins," was the rejoinder, "and here is
+one for me from my New York brokers. Let me see--ah-h-h-h!"
+
+The last was a sharp exclamation, as if Mr. Chadwick had received a
+sudden shock. It was followed by silence. Again and again Jack flashed
+the red signaling lamp but there was no reply.
+
+He was seriously worried. The sudden sharp intake of breath, almost
+like an outcry, that he had heard, oppressed him with a sense of
+apprehension. What could have happened? Turning to Tom he called for
+full speed ahead for the trip back.
+
+Tom was not slow in responding. He speeded the motors up to their top
+capacity. In the air there were no speed laws to look out for, or
+other motorists or pedestrians to avoid. It was a clear road. The
+steel stays and stanchions of the stanch Wonder ship fairly hummed as
+she shot forward, while an indefinable fear clutched at Jack's heart.
+
+He knew that his father was subject to fainting spells and he had been
+overworking recently. Fast as the Wondership was cutting through the
+air it felt like an eternity to Jack before the gray walls and the
+well-laid-out grounds of High Towers came into view.
+
+The boys lost no time in landing, and not waiting to place the
+Wondership in her shed, set out to look for Mr. Chadwick. Jupe came
+shuffling by on his way from the cornpatch.
+
+"Where's dad, Jupe?" asked Jack.
+
+"In his labveroratory, ah reckons," answered the old colored man.
+"Leastways ah ain't obfustucated any obserwations ob him round der
+contagiois atmosferics."
+
+"Come on, Tom," said Jack. "Let's get to dad's workshop as quick as we
+can."
+
+"Why, Jack, you--you don't think that anything has happened to him, do
+you?" asked Tom.
+
+"I don't know. He was talking quite cheerfully to me and then,
+without any warning, he gave a sort of gasp and then everything was
+silent."
+
+The next minute the boys entered the workshop of the inventor.
+
+Jack's worst fears were realized as they gazed at the scene before
+them. On the floor, stretched out inanimate before the radio telephone
+apparatus, lay Mr. Chadwick. His right hand grasped a letter.
+
+His head lay in a pool of blood, oozing from a cut at the back of his
+head.
+
+"Dad! dad! What has happened?" cried Jack, in an agony of alarm, as he
+fell to his knees at his father's side.
+
+But Mr. Chadwick did not answer. The next moment Tom's shout for help
+brought everybody about the place running toward the workshop where
+the alarming discovery had been made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+INTO THE STORM.
+
+
+"Carry him into the house and get him to bed," cried Mrs. Bagley, the
+housekeeper, wringing her hands distractedly. "Oh dear! poor
+gentleman, he's bin a-workin' too hard, that's what's the matter."
+
+Jupe and Hank Hawkins, the handy man, picked the unconscious man up
+and carried him to bed, where he was made comfortable.
+
+Jack and Tom made an investigation of the workshop. At first the cut
+on Mr. Chadwick's head had given Jack the impression that he might
+have been the victim of foul play.
+
+But a brief survey of the place soon dispelled these conclusions. When
+he fell, the inventor struck his head against the sharp corner of a
+table right behind him, Jack concluded, and in this way inflicted the
+wound.
+
+The letter that his father had been reading when he was stricken
+still lay on the floor. Jack picked it up. It was from the brokers in
+New York, the same missive Mr. Chadwick had referred to over the radio
+'phone just before the silence that so alarmed Jack.
+
+Glancing over it Jack's eyes widened. He perceived at once that the
+cause of his father's sudden attack no doubt lay in the shock he had
+received when he opened the envelope. The letter was curt and to the
+point.
+
+"Your securities wiped out in panic," it said. "Wire us and advise
+what to do."
+
+That was all, but it was enough. Jack knew that most of his father's
+money was invested with the firm that had written the letter, and now
+they had been wiped out in a money panic. Jack had no idea how much of
+his father's fortune was affected, but it was evident from Mr.
+Chadwick's collapse that he had been dealt a heavy blow.
+
+He was in the midst of talking to Tom about the letter when the
+housekeeper came running from the house.
+
+"Oh, here you boys are!" she exclaimed. "You must get Dr. Mays at
+once. Those red drops he gave your father are finished and I can't
+find any more."
+
+"I'll telephone," said Jack promptly, stuffing the letter into his
+pocket.
+
+"I've already tried that," said Mrs. Bagley, "but the line is out of
+order."
+
+"Can't we get some other doctor?" asked Tom.
+
+Mrs. Bagley shook her head.
+
+"Dr. Mays is the only one who understands your father's case," she
+said. "You must get him as soon as possible."
+
+"Is dad conscious yet?" asked Jack anxiously.
+
+"Yes, he has been trying to tell me something but I won't let him
+talk."
+
+"We'll get Dr. Mays right away," said Jack, but then he suddenly
+recollected that the electric car was slightly out of order. There
+would be no time to stop and repair it then.
+
+Luckily the Wondership still stood outside the shed. Five minutes
+later the boys were soaring aloft, bound for the doctor's house, which
+was some distance away. It was not till they had fairly started that
+they noticed the change in the weather.
+
+The thunderheads they had seen earlier in the day now spread and
+covered the whole sky with a dark pall. The air was very still, as if
+nature was holding her breath. Far off, though in plain view, the sea
+was lying like a smooth sheet of steel-gray velvet. A sailing ship,
+with sails flapping, was becalmed some distance from shore.
+
+"Going to rain," said Tom.
+
+"Worse than that, I think," said Jack. "We're in for the storm that's
+been making up for two days now."
+
+"Well, we can get there and back before it breaks."
+
+"Easily. Let those motors out, Tom, we want to make good time."
+
+It was oppressively hot, and had it not been for Jack's anxiety he
+would have enjoyed the swift cooling passage through the thundery air.
+But he was strangely troubled. Did that letter mean that his father
+was on the verge of ruin?
+
+Suddenly he bethought himself of Ned Nevins' letter. He opened it,
+having pushed it into his pocket when they entered the workshop, where
+Mr. Chadwick had placed it before opening the ominous epistle from his
+brokers. It was a friendly, chatty note from the boy, and enclosed the
+checks covering the joint dividends of Jack and Tom in the
+Hydroaeroplane Company.
+
+"Well, at any rate, that's something," declared Jack to Tom, as he
+handed him the letter and his check.
+
+"Yes, but if Uncle Chester is ruined, it's only a drop in the bucket,"
+said Tom.
+
+"Well, it's no use crossing your bridges till you come to them," said
+Jack, "and anyhow, that letter may be only a false alarm. I've heard
+they get these financial panics in Wall Street just like kids get the
+measles, and they get over them as quickly."
+
+"I trust it will be so in this case," said Tom.
+
+"So do I," said Jack hopefully, but a cold fear that his father was
+ruined possessed him, and made his heart feel heavy as lead.
+
+Suddenly, from the purple firmament, came the sound of distant
+thunder. Following it a puff of wind, hot as the exhalation of an
+opened oven, blew in their faces. In the distance they saw a ragged
+streak of lightning tear the cloud curtains.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE "LIGHTNING CAGE."
+
+
+"Look at that, will you!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+"What, you are not scared, are you?" asked Jack.
+
+"N-no, but I must say I'm not fond of thunderstorms Particularly when
+we are carrying all that gas over our heads."
+
+"That new invention of mine will take care of that all right," said
+Jack confidently.
+
+He referred to a new device of his with which the Wondership was
+equipped for protecting balloon bags from lightning. In a thunderstorm
+a balloon, or gas-filled dirigible, is subject to sudden variations of
+electric charge which, under certain conditions, might produce sparks
+leading to its annihilation.
+
+More especially was this the case with such a craft as this
+Wondership, carrying as she did so much metal and steel wiring. The
+netting of the bag, with the idea of making it as conductive as
+possible, was of metal, connecting with the other metal parts of the
+craft so that when a steel drag rope was lowered to the ground a
+discharge of lightning striking the balloon would be passed off
+harmlessly into the earth, as is the case with a lightning conductor.
+
+It might be supposed that making the outside of a balloon a good
+conductor would invite danger from lightning. But the Boy Inventors
+knew that this was not the case. While the ordinary balloon envelope
+is a fairly good insulator against low voltage, it is unable to resist
+the high tension of atmospheric electricity.
+
+Jack ascertained these facts by touching an electroscope with a bit of
+balloon cloth of the kind used on the Wondership, and charged with
+2,000 volts of electricity. The electroscope instantly responded.
+
+This showed that the balloon bag increased the electrical tension
+immediately above and below it as much as it would do if it was a
+perfect conductor, but the destructive action of a lightning bolt
+would be greater in proportion to the resistance opposed to it. So
+that, in reality, Jack's device was one of the safest that could be
+imagined for protecting balloonists in a heavy storm.
+
+In effect, the occupants of the Wondership were enclosed in a cage.
+Lightning might zip through the wires and stays, but it could not
+touch them. As to the danger of letting out gas through the valve in a
+strong electric field, which is almost certain to produce sparks, the
+boys did not have to worry about that for to deflate the bag they
+simply pumped some of its contents back into the reservoir with the
+powerful gas pumps.
+
+But after all, Jack's device had never been tested. It looked as if it
+was due to be. The wind came in sharp puffs, now hot and now cold.
+
+Ragged, white clouds, like wind-driven fragments of filmy lace, began
+to whip across the dark heavens. The sea turned a peculiar light
+green and was flecked with whitecaps.
+
+"We're in for it," said Jack. "Better get up the storm curtains, Tom."
+
+While Jack steered, Tom drew up the waterproof curtains and top which,
+in rainy weather, made the Wondership quite dry and weather-tight.
+Mica portholes gave light inside this extemporized cabin, and enabled
+the steersman to see.
+
+This had hardly been done when a wild gust of wind struck the
+Wondership and sent it staggering off its course. But in a jiffy Jack
+regained control of the craft and headed her straight for the white
+house occupied by Dr. Mays, which could now be seen, its lofty cupola
+poking up above the trees surrounding it.
+
+"Glad we're nearly there," said Tom. "I don't much like this."
+
+"We're O.K.," Jack assured him. "We went through a lot worse than this
+in that circular storm in Yucatan."
+
+"Can't we drop and run along the road?"
+
+"It's much longer by the road than by the air line, and remember we
+are in a big hurry."
+
+"That's so. But we've got the return trip ahead of us."
+
+"Well, if it gets too bad, we'll have to come back by road," said
+Jack, "but I haven't got a doubt that she'll stand anything that will
+come out of this storm."
+
+Crash!
+
+The sky was rent from end to end by jagged lightning. With a deafening
+roar the thunder broke, rumbling and crashing in the sultry air.
+
+S-w-i-s-h!
+
+The rain came in torrents, tearing at the storm curtains. It beat
+frantically at them with a noise like that of surf on a beach. But
+inside the boys were snug and dry, and the Wondership forged steadily
+forward. It was a weird experience for the boys. About them the
+artillery of heaven thundered and flashed. They could see each other's
+faces and the black outlines of their craft in the livid flare of
+flash after flash of lightning.
+
+Jack, with his hands firmly gripping the steering wheel, anticipating
+every move of the storm-tossed Wondership like a skillful pilot, felt
+his pulses throb. There was something fine in battling with the
+elements like this in a stanch craft they had perfected. He felt that
+no other airship then in existence would have been able to keep up the
+fight.
+
+All at once there came a crash that drove his eardrums in. The
+Wondership staggered and then seemed to leap into lambent flame.
+Blinded, Jack threw his hands before his eyes, utterly forgetting for
+the minute the steering wheel.
+
+Tom gave a shout of alarm, as he felt the craft stagger as if dealt a
+mortal blow, and then begin to drop earthward.
+
+"We've been struck!" he yelled in panic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THROUGH THE AIR.
+
+
+For the fraction of a second the faculties of both boys were
+paralyzed. A tingling sensation was in their limbs. Jack was the first
+to recover his wits. He snatched his hands from his eyes and seized
+the wheel. In a jiffy the Wondership's earthward plunge was checked.
+Once more she regained an even keel.
+
+"Wh-what happened?" stuttered Tom anxiously.
+
+"We were hit by lightning," replied Jack.
+
+"Goodness! I thought we were goners, for a minute."
+
+"I confess that I did, too. But I guess the 'electric cage' worked.
+Everything seems to be shipshape."
+
+Jack was right. Thanks to his ingenious invention, the lightning,
+which had struck the aircraft, had been diffused through the safety
+"cage" and safely convoyed to the earth by the ground chain made of
+light manganese bronze, which had been lowered when the storm broke.
+
+"Just the same I don't want to get hit again," said Tom. "I thought
+for a minute the world had come to an end."
+
+"My fingers are tingling yet," said Jack, "and I can see stars, but I
+think if it hadn't been for the cage we would have likely been blown
+to smithereens."
+
+By this time they were almost over the doctor's house and extensive
+grounds. Jack manipulated the Wondership against the storm, flying in
+a circle, and snapped on the powerful searchlight. With the help of
+its rays he picked out a good landing place, and having set the pumps
+at work abstracting gas from the bag, they soon made a good landing.
+
+Doctor Mays stood on his porch as they left the ship and ran through
+the downpour for the house.
+
+"Gracious, boys!" he exclaimed, "but you certainly gave me a fright.
+I thought when that bolt hit you that you were going to be
+annihilated."
+
+"How did it look from below?" asked Jack.
+
+"As if you were enveloped in blue flame. Then suddenly a ball of red
+fire slid from the ship to the ground----"
+
+"Down the conducting rope," put in Jack.
+
+"And exploded with a loud bang when it struck the ground," continued
+the doctor. "But all's well that ends well, and now tell me what
+brings you here, for I know it must be urgent business or you'd never
+have ventured through such a storm."
+
+Jack hastily told the doctor of his father's stroke. The medical man
+looked grave.
+
+"I'll go with you just as soon as I can pack my bag," he said. "Your
+father had been overworking. I warned him of what would happen if he
+did not rest up, some time ago, but he has, seemingly, disregarded my
+advice."
+
+In a few minutes the doctor, muffled up in a raincoat, was ready to
+start. But he stipulated that the run to High Towers should be made by
+the road.
+
+"I like excitement as well as anybody," he said, "and I've been up in
+your Wondership before----"
+
+"When it was the Roadracer," interpolated Jack.
+
+"Exactly; but I must confess that when I saw you a short time ago
+looking like a floating ball of fire, I lost my taste for aerial
+travel."
+
+"We'll go back by road, then," said Jack, as through the rain, which
+was falling in torrents, they ran to the Wondership.
+
+"My, but you have it snug in here," said the doctor, as he entered the
+tight, waterproof cabin.
+
+"Hang up your coat, doctor," said Tom, and he took the physician's
+dripping mackintosh and slung it on a hook attached to one of the
+stanchions. Then the start was made, with the bag partially deflated
+and lying in limp, wet folds on its framework.
+
+Through the night, under skies fretted with lightning, the Wondership
+shot forward. Out on the open road Jack ordered full speed, the great
+searchlights illuming the roadway as if it were day. He felt little
+apprehension of meeting other vehicles. The night was too bad to
+permit of any save emergency traveling.
+
+The roads were deep in mud, and water spurted up from the wheels of
+the flying car as it raced through the storm. But seated snug and dry
+in the cabin none of them bothered about this. Little was said. Jack
+had to concentrate his mind on handling the Wondership, for driving
+under the conditions, and at such speed, required all the
+wheel-handler's attention.
+
+On and on they flew, down hills and over bridges, under which,
+ordinarily, quiet streams flowed, but now swollen by the rains, they
+boiled and raced like angry torrents. They flashed through villages
+and past farmhouses without encountering a soul, while overhead the
+tempest roared and raged and flared.
+
+They were shooting down a hill at top speed when Jack suddenly gave a
+gasp. Right in front of them, vividly outlined in the searchlight's
+glare, was an obstacle. A big wagonload of hay, covered with a
+tarpaulin, and deserted by its driver who, despairing of mounting the
+hill in the storm, had unhitched his horses and driven off till the
+weather cleared.
+
+The wagon was in such a position that it blocked the road, which was
+sunken between high banks at that point. Jack ground down his brakes
+in chagrin.
+
+"Blocked!" he exclaimed disgustedly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+VAULTING TO THE RESCUE.
+
+
+"What awful luck," muttered Tom.
+
+"Isn't there any way we can get by?" inquired the doctor anxiously.
+"It's important that I should reach Mr. Chadwick as soon as possible."
+
+Jack made no reply, but bent over the gas-valve. In an instant the gas
+was hissing into the balloon bag. Its wet folds swelled out, and
+presently Jack started the propellers. Like a racehorse leaping a
+barrier, the Wondership rose skyward.
+
+"Hold fast!" cried the boy in a triumphant voice.
+
+"Wow!" yelled Tom, "there are more ways of killing a cat than by
+choking it with cream."
+
+The next moment the Wondership was in the road on the other side of
+the hay wagon, having hurdled it like a high jumper, and was once more
+on her way.
+
+"Jove, you boys are marvels!" exclaimed the doctor. "Is there
+anything you can't do with this craft, or auto, or whatever it is, of
+yours?"
+
+"Lots of things, I guess," said Tom, "but we haven't found many of
+them yet."
+
+At uninterrupted speed the journey was resumed. At times so swift was
+the pace that the Wondership seemed to be half flying. Thanks to her
+shock absorbers, but little motion was felt, although in places the
+roadway had been washed out by the torrential downpour and was very
+rough.
+
+"Whereabouts are we?" shouted Tom, as they rushed along.
+
+"Near the Coon Creek Bridge," flung back Jack over his shoulder. "We
+ought to sight it at any moment now."
+
+He peered through the blackness ahead. The searchlights failed to show
+any bridge. But the young driver saw an abandoned cottage by the
+roadside which had formerly been used as a toolhouse. Just beyond it
+he knew the bridge should loom up with its white railings.
+
+But there was not a sign of it.
+
+Not till it was too late to stop did Jack realize what had happened.
+The bridge had been washed away by the rising waters of the creek and
+he was tearing at top speed for the steep banks.
+
+It was a moment for lightning thinking. Right ahead loomed a black pit
+which he knew marked the water course.
+
+Suddenly it flashed into Jack's mind that in former times, before the
+bridge had been built, there had been a ford at the point.
+
+The banks, steep elsewhere, almost wall-like in fact, were still
+graded at the place where the old crossing spot had been.
+
+He jerked over the steering wheel with a suddenness that threatened to
+overturn the Wondership. The auto-craft plunged wildly to one side and
+then rushed downward.
+
+Before he realized it, Jack had steered her into the rushing waters of
+the swollen creek.
+
+"All the power you've got," he cried to Tom, as the Wondership
+careened and tipped madly and then recovered an even keel. Jack headed
+her up stream while Tom, who hardly knew what had happened, blindly
+obeyed orders.
+
+Jack's chief fear was that the rush of the torrential water would
+carry him too far down to make a landing on the opposite side of the
+old ford. In that case they would be in a bad fix, for the creek ran
+for some distance between steep walls of limestone rock.
+
+It was a hard struggle. The twin propellers beat the air furiously,
+clawing the Wondership up stream, while the water hissed and roared
+all about her, and the engine labored with a noise like that of a
+giant locust.
+
+And then, almost before he knew it, and before either Tom or the
+doctor realized in the least what had happened, they found themselves
+safe on the other side. They had gained the opposite slope of the ford
+with hardly an inch to spare, but that was enough.
+
+The Wondership sped up the bank as if glad to be free of the battle
+with the swollen creek, and not half an hour afterward they rolled up
+to High Towers.
+
+Dr. Mays was met almost tearfully by Mrs. Bagley.
+
+"How is he?" was his first question.
+
+"He seems to be better, doctor, but something is worrying him," said
+the worthy woman.
+
+"I'll go up to him at once. You boys had better stay here," said the
+doctor.
+
+The physician was upstairs a long time. When he came down he looked
+grave.
+
+"Is dad any better?" asked Jack anxiously.
+
+"He is suffering from a nervous breakdown due to overwork," said the
+doctor. "The cut on his head is a mere flesh wound. But he appears to
+have something on his mind. Do you know what it is?"
+
+Then, and not till then, for in the rush of events he had completely
+forgotten it, Jack remembered the letter from the brokers.
+
+"Dr. Mays," he said, "you are an old friend?"
+
+"I hope so, my boy. You may confide in me freely if you know any
+reason for your father's disquiet."
+
+"If you will read this, doctor, you will understand," and Jack handed
+him the letter.
+
+Dr. Mays read it with knitted brows.
+
+"So this explains it," he said as he returned it to Jack. "Your father
+kept muttering about foolish speculations and ruin, but would not tell
+me what he meant. Now it is all clear. Poor Chadwick, I'm afraid from
+what he said that his fortune, all but a small amount, is wiped out."
+
+"But will he get better, doctor?" asked Jack anxiously, disregarding
+the monetary aspect of the affair.
+
+"That all depends," said the doctor seriously, "on his freedom from
+anxiety."
+
+"You mean that he must not worry over money matters?"
+
+"Precisely; but, as that letter states he is ruined, it will be hard
+to set his mind at rest. If there were only some way of meeting the
+situation!"
+
+In the crucible of that moment an idea was borne to Jack that was
+destined to lead him into strange paths.
+
+"I think I know of a way," he said quietly, "that is, if the brokers'
+message is not exaggerated."
+
+But it was not. The next day confirmatory reports arrived of the wreck
+of Mr. Chadwick's fortunes. In his room, attended constantly by Dr.
+Mays, his friend as well as physician, the inventor raved of his
+losses.
+
+"We have got to think of some way of easing his mind," said Dr. Mays,
+who had placed his regular practice in the hands of another doctor so
+that he might be with Mr. Chadwick. "If only his fortune could be won
+back."
+
+"I think I know of a way," said Jack quietly.
+
+The doctor stared at him as if he thought the boy had taken leave of
+his senses.
+
+"You know of a way?" he questioned incredulously.
+
+"Yes, sir. At least if the information Tom and I have on the subject
+is correct."
+
+"I don't follow you," said the puzzled doctor. "Your father has lost
+thousands."
+
+Jack nodded.
+
+"I know all that," he said.
+
+"And yet you are prepared to get it back?"
+
+"I said I thought there was a possibility," was Jack's quiet reply.
+
+"And what may that be?"
+
+"Did you ever hear of Z.2.X., doctor?" was the entirely unexpected
+question.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+"Z.2.X."
+
+
+"Z.2.X.? Well, such things are rather out of my line, but I have heard
+of it--yes," replied the doctor, looking more puzzled than ever. "But
+what do you know about it?"
+
+"Till two days ago--nothing," replied Jack, "but now I believe that I
+know where there is a trainload of it."
+
+"Good heavens, boy, you don't know what you're talking about. Why, the
+stuff is as valuable--as valuable as radium. Possibly it is worth
+more."
+
+"Then even a small quantity would restore my father's fortune and his
+health?" asked Jack, persisting in his line of inquiry.
+
+"Undoubtedly it would restore his fortune, and in my belief his
+health, which he is unlikely to gain otherwise."
+
+"Then I'll do it," said Jack, speaking for himself and Tom, for the
+two lads had discussed the idea the night before. "Those dividends
+from our share of the hydroaeroplane plant will fit out an expedition,
+and if we fail--well, we can still sell out our interest and help dad
+get on his feet again."
+
+The telephone bell jangled. Jack answered it. The voice that came over
+the wire was that of Professor Jenks. His tones trembled with
+excitement as he spoke to the boy.
+
+"I have analyzed that sample from the Colorado River," he said.
+
+"Well, what is your verdict?" asked Jack, with a painfully beating
+heart.
+
+"That when all the expenses of reduction and refining and
+transportation and digging are deducted that it will be worth at least
+$100 an ounce," was the reply. "It would bring an even higher price,
+for the placing of a large amount on the market will probably have the
+effect of lowering it."
+
+"Great Scott!" breathed Jack, "and there's a whole island of it there
+for the taking."
+
+"Yes; but how are yow going to get it? The cliffs are unscalable, the
+river unnavigable. It might as well be in Mars for all the good it
+does anyone," objected the professor.
+
+Jack's next words were direct, to say the least.
+
+"I've figured out all that," he said. "We can get it, if it's there to
+be got. I've a reason now for going out there if it's possible to come
+to some arrangement with Zeb Cummings. Can you meet me at the hospital
+this afternoon to talk over the matter?"
+
+"Are you serious?" gasped the professor.
+
+"Perfectly," Jack assured him. "If we can't get at it by earth or
+water we can reach it from the air, can't we?"
+
+"Heaven bless my soul, I never thought of that," choked out the
+professor. "I--Melissa's calling me. I'll meet you at the hospital
+this afternoon."
+
+"Tom and I will be there," said Jack, but the professor, at the
+imperious bidding of Melissa, had hung up the receiver.
+
+The result of the conference held that afternoon at the bedside of Zeb
+Cummings was the formation of the Z.2.X. Exploration Company, the
+members being Jack, Tom, Zeb Cummings and the professor. The capital
+was to be furnished in equal amounts by the professor and the boys,
+and Zeb Cummings was to be an equal partner in the enterprise, he
+having furnished the information on which Jack hoped to rehabilitate
+his father's fortunes.
+
+As for the professor, he did not so much regard the pecuniary side of
+the expedition as the opportunity he would have to write an
+epoch-making book and confound his scientific rivals. In their
+enthusiasm, the adventurers did not take into consideration the fact
+that the map might be wrong, or that the strange metals be just
+visionary deposits. The boys' enthusiasm drowned all doubts in their
+minds; Zeb and the professor never were as optimistic.
+
+Dr. Mays, when he had been placed in full possession of the facts and
+considered them, decided that under the circumstances the boys could
+go and undertook to quiet any apprehensions Mr. Chadwick might have
+concerning the trip. It was found that enough had been saved from the
+wreck of the inventor's fortunes to enable him to live comfortably
+while the boys were away, besides which he had royalties from several
+inventions coming in. Still, the bulk of his fortunes had vanished and
+the radio telephone was not yet a practicable instrument to put upon
+the market.
+
+But with Z.2.X. the boys hoped to make it a perfect transmitter of
+speech over great distances.
+
+Of course, Jack's plan was to utilize the Wondership on the enterprise
+of finding Rattlesnake Island and its treasures. After long
+consultations with Zeb, who was now convalescent, it was decided to
+ship the craft, in sections, to Yuma on the Colorado River and make
+the start secretly from some point below there.
+
+It was in the midst of these plans, and while the boys' workshed was
+littered with lists of provisions and equipment that Dick Donovan
+injected himself into the situation. The red-headed young reporter
+descended upon them one day when they were busily packing the
+Wondership away in big crates, which were labeled in various ways so
+as to give no inkling of the contents.
+
+Of course Dick, being in a way a member of the firm, had to be told
+what was going on, and the result was that after a lot of hard
+pleading the boys consented to allow him to come along.
+
+"He's got red hair," said Zeb, "and that ought to make him good on the
+trail, same as a buckskin cayuse."
+
+The boys didn't quite see the logic of this, but they knew from former
+experiences that the young reporter was a good campmate, and they
+were, on the whole, glad that they had included him. But when young
+Donovan came to High Towers, he was not aware that he was followed by
+Bill Masterson, who, as we know, was the son of the proprietor of the
+_Boston Moon_, on which paper young Masterson also worked as a
+reporter.
+
+Ever since Dick Donovan had written for his paper, the _Boston Evening
+Eagle_, the wonderful story of the boys' adventures on the trail of
+the giant sloth of Brazil, other Boston reporters had regarded him as
+worth watching. In some way, young Masterson learned of Dick's
+frequent visits to High Towers while the preparations for the Colorado
+trip were going forward.
+
+"It's my idea," he told his father, "that those Boy Inventors are
+planning another big stunt and that Dick Donovan is to go along and
+write the story. Do we want to get beaten again?"
+
+"We do not," said his father, a heavily-set, dictatorial man,
+perpetually at war with the _Evening Eagle_. "That last beat of
+Donovan's on the Brazil story jumped the _Eagle's_ circulation sky
+high."
+
+"Well, why not let me trail along after them and find out what I can?"
+said young Masterson. "No use letting the _Moon_ get soaked again, and
+besides, I want to get even on those young fellows, anyhow, for the
+mean trick they played in having me arrested, even if it didn't come
+to anything, and the case was dropped.
+
+"Jove!" he cried suddenly, as a new train of thought was suggested to
+him. "I'll bet I've got it. This trip, or whatever it is, they are
+planning has something to do with that miner, Zeb Cummings, the chap I
+ran down."
+
+"Well, it's worth keeping a weather eye on, anyway," decided his
+father. "I guess you'll get the assignment."
+
+"And I'll run it down, too," declared young Masterson boastfully. "I
+owe that red-headed, chesty Donovan a grudge anyhow."
+
+That evening young Masterson met by appointment the two youths who had
+been with him in the automobile the day that Zeb was run down. They
+were both sons of wealthy men, and had more money than was good for
+them. Masterson found that both Sam Higgins and Eph Compton were
+willing to do all they could to harm the boys who had been responsible
+for their arrests, and so it came about that Jupe, on his way to the
+village to post some letters, was enticed into talk one night, and
+while he was chatting and accepting the good cigars three amiable
+young men pressed upon him, the mail was abstracted from his pocket.
+
+There were two letters, one from Dick to his city editor telling him
+of the progress made and informing him of the day for the start, and
+the other from Jack to his father, who was a guest of Dr. Mays. Jack
+gave full details of their plans and other information concerning the
+trip, so that the three plotters, a few days before the expedition set
+out, knew as much about it as the boys themselves.
+
+Armed with this information, Masterson, Higgins and Compton had no
+difficulty in getting money from their parents, all of whom would have
+described themselves as "keen business men." As for Jupe, he was too
+badly scared to say anything about the loss of the letters, and as
+Masterson, after steaming them open and abstracting what he wanted of
+their contents, posted them to their proper destinations, the boys
+started out on their long journey west without the slightest idea that
+anyone but themselves and one or two others knew of their plans.
+
+The professor's going was not unaccompanied by difficulties. Miss
+Melissa had insisted that if he was to accompany the expedition, she
+was going along, too. This being manifestly impossible, the man of
+science was driven to the subterfuge of placing a bag of fossils in
+his bed to represent him. On the night of the start, Miss Melissa
+looked into his room every few minutes to make sure he had not
+escaped.
+
+It was not till morning that she discovered that the man of science
+had effected his escape through his bedroom window, climbing down a
+latticework to the ground. At first she was half inclined to pursue
+him, but thought the better of it when she read the note the professor
+had left behind.
+
+"Well," said Miss Melissa to her little maid, "there's one good
+thing--he won't be cluttering up the house with old stones and rocks
+for some time to come."
+
+"What shall I do with them fossils what he put in his bed to make
+believe it was him, miss?" asked the maid.
+
+"You may throw them into the creek at the back of the house, Mary,"
+said Miss Melissa, and went placidly about her dusting and sweeping
+and "setting to rights."
+
+But of all this, the professor, on the train speeding westward, was
+blissfully unconscious. Perhaps even if he had known it, he would not
+have cared much, for even his scientific mind was warmed and thrilled
+by the prospect of the aerial search for the mineral treasures of
+Rattlesnake Island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+ON THE BORDER LINE.
+
+
+The long train of gray-coated coaches, filmed with the arid dust of
+the desert, rolled into Yuma, the little town at the junction of the
+Gila and Colorado River, popularly supposed to be the hottest place in
+America. The boys, glad that their long journey had come to an end,
+felt that it was living up to its reputation as they alighted and
+stood in the blistering heat while their personal baggage was thrown
+off.
+
+The professor, however, was quite oblivious to the scorching rays of
+the afternoon sun. He darted about seeking specimens, and he had soon
+gathered up quite a collection of small rocks. In the meantime Zeb
+Cummings, who was quite in his element, had helped the boys get their
+things together and see them loaded on a mule wagon which rattled them
+off to a small hotel, for they did not want to make themselves any
+more conspicuous than was necessary.
+
+The boys wore gray flannel shirts, khaki trousers, stout high boots
+and broad-brimmed hats, and had fastened red handkerchiefs round their
+throats to keep off the sun from the back of their necks. Zeb had a
+similar outfit.
+
+The professor, however, still wore his baggy black garments, his only
+concession to the heat being a big green umbrella, which looked like a
+gigantic verdant mushroom. As they drove off in a rickety sort of bus,
+having with difficulty persuaded the professor to leave off specimen
+hunting for a while, the boys did not notice that from the opposite
+side of the train three young men had alighted who, from a point of
+vantage behind a water tower, watched their movements.
+
+The trio were Bill Masterson and his two cronies, Sam Higgins and Eph
+Compton.
+
+"Well, here we are, Eph," said Bill, as they watched the boys drive
+off.
+
+"Yes, and here they are, too," grunted Eph.
+
+"I'm glad we've got here at last, though. Keeping out of sight on
+that train was beginning to get on my nerves."
+
+"Same here," said Sam Higgins, stretching himself. "But I guess we
+succeeded in keeping ourselves hidden all right."
+
+"Sure," rejoined Masterson. "They haven't a notion we are here."
+
+In the meantime the lads found accommodations till the next day at the
+small hotel on a back street where Zeb had insisted on their coming so
+as to escape observation. Yuma is full of prospectors and miners, and
+every stranger in town is suspected of having some sort of a scheme,
+he explained, and as a consequence is closely watched.
+
+Zeb's first care, therefore, was to circulate a story that the
+professor, a noted savant and geologist, was going into the desert
+with his party to collect specimens. This appeared to satisfy the
+landlord, who was at first inclined to be curious.
+
+The professor had hardly been shown his room before he was out again
+with his hammer and satchel and his attention was almost at once
+attracted by a big stone that held up one corner of the barn at the
+back of the hotel. The boys knew nothing of what he was doing till
+they heard a loud, angry voice crying:
+
+"Hey, you in ther preacher's suit! Quit tryin' ter pull thet thar barn
+down, will yer?"
+
+"But, my dear sir," came the professor's voice, in mild expostulation,
+"are you aware that you have built your barn on the top of a splendid
+specimen of primordial rock?"
+
+"Don't know nuthin' about a prime order of rock," came back the other
+voice.
+
+The boys looked out of the window. They saw the landlord of the hotel,
+a surly-looking fellow, with a big black mustache and tanned cheeks,
+striding across the yard to the professor, who had blissfully resumed
+his chipping.
+
+The landlord reached out one brawny hand to grab his guest, when
+something happened that made him temporarily cease hostilities. A big
+chunk of rock suddenly flaked off under the professor's assault. It
+flew in the air and the next instant a yell of pain apprised them that
+the landlord had got it right in the eye.
+
+The professor looked round as the man emitted a bellow of rage.
+
+"Bless me, where did that bit of rock go? Ah, there it is! Right at
+your feet, sir," and he darted forward with a smile of satisfaction
+and, picking up the chunk of rock that had struck the indignant
+landlord, placed it in his satchel.
+
+"Thank you very much for stopping it, sir," he said, with a bow, and
+then, before the thunderstruck landlord could say anything, the
+scientist strolled off under his umbrella in search of more specimens.
+The boys fairly choked with laughter.
+
+But the landlord was too dumfounded even to speak for a minute. His
+face grew as purple as a plum. He appeared to be about to burst.
+
+"He's locoed," he burst forth at last, "locoed as a horn toad, by the
+'tarnal hills."
+
+Then, holding a hand to his eye, he reentered the hotel and could be
+heard shouting for hot water to bathe his injury.
+
+Zeb, who had been out looking for a trustworthy man to take their
+effects out to a spot along the river where they could put the
+Wondership together without exciting undue curiosity, returned shortly
+before supper with news that he had been successful in his search, an
+old, wrinkled prospector named Pete McGee, who had learned the secret
+of silence during the long years he had spent on the desert.
+
+After the evening meal old McGee put in an appearance and a bargain
+was struck. But if he was, as Zeb put it, "close-mouthed" on some
+subjects, he was not on others.
+
+"So yer are a'goin' out inter the desert, hey?" he asked the boys.
+
+"That's our intention," said Dick.
+
+The old man shook his head.
+
+"The desert's a tough place," he said. "A mighty tough place. Reckon
+it's likely yer are er goin' prospectin', maybe?"
+
+The boys returned an evasive answer. But old McGee rambled on with the
+crisscross wrinkles forming and fading round his washed-out blue eyes.
+
+"Wa'al, I had my share on it, ain't I, Zeb?" said the old man to Zeb,
+who had just strolled up, smoking a short, black pipe. The professor,
+after adjusting his difficulties with the landlord, was sorting and
+labeling specimens in his room.
+
+"Reckon you have, Pete," responded the yellow-bearded miner. "You
+didn't never find that thar lost Peg-leg Smith mine, did yer?"
+
+"No; but I will some day," declared the old man, a fanatic gleam
+shining in his faded optics. "I'll find it some day, Zeb. I never got
+to it, but I come mighty close--yes, sir, ole Pete he come mighty
+close."
+
+"Tell the boys about Peg-leg Smith's lost mine," suggested Zeb.
+
+"Give me the fillin's, then, an' I will," said old Pete, holding out
+a blackened and empty corncob, "though I'm surprised they ain't never
+heard on it. Thought everybody had heard of Peg-leg's mine."
+
+"Wa'al, you see they come frum ther East," explained Zeb
+apologetically.
+
+"Ah, that accounts fer it," said old Pete indulgently. "You couldn't
+'spec Easterners ter know nuthin' 'bout it. 'Wa'al, young sirs,
+somewheres out on the desert ter the east uv here thar is three buttes
+a stickin' up, and right thar is Peg-leg Smith's lost mine whar they
+say the very sands is uv gold.
+
+"Who was Peg-leg? Wa'al, that's in a way not very well known. Anyhow,
+his name was Smith, and he was shy an off leg, and so he gets his
+name. Back in 1836 Peg-leg he blows inter Yuma with a party of
+trappers that hed worked down ther Colorado.
+
+"They decides to quit trapping and go ter gold huntin', and makes
+their way up the Gila River and then cuts off inter ther desert. Frum
+Yuma they goes southeast and kep' on fer four days across the desert.
+At ther end of the fourth day they 'lows that ther water ain' a-goin'
+ter hold out a turrible lot longer, and they decides to look fer a
+water-hole in a canyon at ther end uv which stands three lone buttes
+sticking up, like sentinels against ther sky.
+
+"Wa'al, they hunts ther canyon through but nary a drop of water. In
+time they reaches ther buttes. They climbs to ther top ter see what
+might lay beyond, but they see nuthin' but ther same God-forgotten
+country.
+
+"But Peg-leg, who fer all he was minus a limb, could travel with any
+of 'em, he finds at the top of the southernmost butte a lot of chunks
+of black rock lying round promiscous, an' some of them has specks an'
+chunks of yaller as bright as Zeb's beard on 'em. Peg-leg he opines
+ther yaller is nuthin' but copper, or maybe fool's gold.
+
+"That night they camps, feelin' considerable blue, fer ther's mighty
+little water left an' they've come too far ter go back. But in ther
+distance thar's a big mountain and they make up their minds they'll
+find water thar or bust and wither on the desert.
+
+"Ther next evening, more dead than alive, they reaches the mountain
+and finds a little spring. It was ther finest thing they'd seen fer a
+long time, and in honor of Peg-leg, who suggested going to ther
+mountain, they calls it Smith Mountain, and that's its name to this
+day. In time they worked round to San Bernardino and then Smith he
+hunts up a mineral sharp who tells him that what he had found was
+gold.
+
+"Wa'al, Smith was a curious feller, frum all accounts, and it was not
+till '49 when ther big gold rush came that he thought much more about
+those three buttes with the gold lying round loose as dirt on 'em.
+Then he got ther gold fever. He went to 'Frisco and gets up an
+expedition to find them three buttes.
+
+"They got down inter ther desert country all right and locates Smith
+Mountain. But the dern Indians they had with 'em as guides cleaned
+out the camp one fine night, and they had a hard time getting back to
+civilization alive. Well, that's where Peg-leg Smith goes out of the
+story."
+
+"Wasn't he ever heard of again?" asked Jack.
+
+"No, siree, not hide nor hair on him. Nobody never knows what became
+of him arter they got back to San Bernardino. Some says that he went
+back alone lookin' fer the three buttes and was lost in the desert and
+that his bones is out thar some'eres to-day, an' others says that he
+got so plum disgusted he went back home to St. Louis. But nobody
+rightly knows.
+
+"The next heard of ther three buttes was many years later when an
+Indian, who worked on Governor Downey's ranch, not far from Smith
+Mountain, developed a habit of goin' away fer a few days and then
+comin' back with bits of black rock chock full of gold which he traded
+fer firewater and such. He didn't seem ter care if he got full value
+or not.
+
+"'Plenty more where those came from,' he'd say.
+
+"Wa'al, they set a watch on him and found that he always headed off
+inter ther desert by way of Smith Mountain, which would be the nat'ul
+way of gettin' ter ther three buttes that Peg-leg had described.
+
+"Guv'ner Downey he come to hear about this in course of time, and he
+come down frum Sacramento to question ther Injun. But in ther meantime
+ther pesky coyote had gone and got himself killed in a quarrel over
+cards and so there they was up agains' a blank wall ag'in."
+
+The old prospector paused to fill his pipe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+"THE THREE BUTTES."
+
+
+"The Injun bein' dead, the guv'ner did the nex' best thing. He
+questioned his squaw. But she couldn't tell 'em much 'cept that the
+Injun told her he got his last water at t'other side of Smith Mountain
+and then traveled toward ther sun till erbout mid-afternoon when he
+found mucho, mucho oro.
+
+"The guv'ner made two or three tries to locate them buttes, but he
+failed. Then come along a man named McGuire, who said he knew where
+the buttes was and showed black rocks with gold in 'em to prove it,
+jes' like the ones Peg-leg and ther Injun had found, they was. Well,
+McGuire he gets five other dern fools and off they starts and that's
+the end of them. They ain't never heard of ag'in.
+
+"Then comes a prospector who gets lost, and in hunting for water
+finds these same three buttes and the black, gold-specked rocks that
+are scattered about. But he wasn't bothering about gold just then, so
+he keeps on and in time finds the water hole at the foot of Smith
+Mountain.
+
+"He comes back to Los Angeles and tries to organize a company to go to
+ther three buttes. But he falls ill and when he learns he's goin' ter
+die he tells Dr. De Courcy, that's his physician, that he knows whar
+Peg-leg's lost mine is an' gives him a map an' directions. Arter ther
+man dies, Dr. De Courcy spends all his money trying ter find ther
+buttes, but he fails. Then comes a young chap named Tom Cover of
+Riverside. He's wealthy and fits out a dozen or more outfits to hunt
+fer ther three buttes. But after setting out on his twelfth trip he
+never comes back, so they know that Peg-leg Smith's mine has claimed
+another victim."
+
+"Is there anything to prove that Peg-leg really ever found the Three
+Buttes?" asked Tom, whom this romance of the desert, like his
+companions, had strangely interested.
+
+"You tell 'em, Zeb," said the old man. "Likely they wouldn't believe
+me."
+
+"Proofs?" said Zeb, "plenty of 'em. The records of the old Bank of San
+Francisco show that McGuire deposited thousands of dollars' worth of
+gold nuggets there, and my old dad knew Peg-leg Smith and saw the
+black rocks with the gold fillings that he brought out uv ther desert.
+Them three golden buttes is out thar somewhar's, and some day
+somebody's goin' to locate 'em and then there'll be another
+millionaire in the country."
+
+Old McGee chuckled over his pipe. It was clear that, ancient and
+feeble as he was, he still believed with all the fanaticism and
+optimism of a prospector that he would be the one to find the three
+buttes of gold.
+
+"It stands ter reason thar's gold out thar," declared old man McGee,
+waving his pipe about argumentatively. "Ther good Lord never made
+nuthin' thet wasn't of some use, even ther fleas on a houn' dawg, for
+they keep him frum thinkin' uv his troubles. Very well, then, the
+desert is good fer nuthin' else but mineral wealth, and Providence
+made it so plagued hard ter git at so that everyone couldn't git rich
+at oncet."
+
+The boys had to laugh at this bit of philosophy, but as they went to
+bed they could not help thinking of the toll of lives the great barren
+stretches of the Colorado desert has exacted from gold-seekers. In
+Jack's dreams he seemed to be traversing vast solitudes of sand and
+desolation dotted with bleaching bones, and he woke with a start to
+find that it was daybreak and that Tom was shaking him out of his
+sleep.
+
+Below, old man McGee was ready with his team and had already got on
+his wagon some of the crates from the freight shed. They made a hasty
+breakfast and then started out. There was hardly anybody about and
+they congratulated Zeb on his strategy in conducting affairs with such
+secrecy.
+
+But as they passed into the outskirts of the town, where the Mexicans
+and Indians lived, Dick Donovan uttered a sudden exclamation.
+
+"Hopping horn-toads!" he gasped.
+
+"What's up?" asked Jack, who sat beside him.
+
+"Oh, nothing," said Dick, "the wagon gave an extra hard jolt, that was
+all, and I thought my head was coming off."
+
+But the cause of Dick's exclamation had been this: From behind a
+squalid hut he caught sight of three shadowy figures, dimly seen in
+the half light, apparently watching the wagon and its occupants.
+
+They quickly withdrew as they saw Dick looking at them, but not before
+the young reporter had received a startling impression that one of
+them at least was familiar to him. The wagon drove out over the desert
+and rumbled along till it came to a deep arroyo, or gulch, in which
+stood a deserted, bleaching hut.
+
+"This is the place," said Zeb.
+
+"Sure, you can stay thar fer a year an' a day an' nuthin' but
+tarant'las an' rattlers ull ever bother ye," said old McGee
+cheerfully.
+
+The cases they had brought were quickly unloaded and lowered into the
+arroyo which led down to where they could see the turgid flood of the
+Colorado flowing between low banks. For at this spot the river is a
+very different stream from what it is above and below, where it makes
+its way to the Gulf of California between unscalable walls of cliffs
+and is a succession of cruel rapids and unpassable falls.
+
+When old McGee drove back for the second and last load, for the
+Wondership was constructed so as to "take-down" very compactly, Dick
+elected to go with him. When they arrived at the freight depot the
+young reporter took the first opportunity to wire his paper in Boston.
+
+"Find out if Bill Masterson is in town," was the substance of his
+message.
+
+They were not to return to the camp till after the mid-day meal, so he
+had plenty of time to receive an answer. This is it:
+
+"Masterson and two others left for the West five days ago."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The same day that we did," mused Dick. "I wonder--but no, I'm sure.
+One of those three figures lurking behind that hut was Masterson, and
+he's planning some mischief, sure as a gun."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+INTO THE BEYOND.
+
+
+"Well, this is something like camping," said Tom that evening,
+stretching himself out luxuriously under a mesquite bush.
+
+"See here, young feller," said Zeb, who by unanimous consent had been
+put in charge of the adventurers. "Are you on a pleasure trip, jes'
+dropped in as a visitor like, or air you a part of this expedition?"
+
+"I guess I'm a part of it all right," said Tom, with rather a sheepish
+grin. "At least I was under that impression."
+
+"Same here," said Zeb dryly. "Thar's lots to be done yet afore we're
+all shipshape fer ther night. Ther's lamps ter be filled and tent
+ropes set right an' then I want a trench dug around ther tents."
+
+"What's the trench for?" asked Jack, who had been busy with the three
+tents, for they had decided on Zeb's advice not to use the old
+roofless shack to sleep in.
+
+"No tellin' what kind of varmints, from skunks to rattlers, ain't
+makin' a hotel out of it," he said, "not to mention tarant'las, which
+has a most unpleasant bite, and scorpions and centipedes that ain't
+much nicer bedfellows."
+
+This was quite enough to make the boys willing, nay anxious, to set up
+the waterproof silk tents.
+
+"What's the trench for?" asked Zeb. "Well, if it should come on ter
+rain in ther night it'll keep us dry to have a trench round each
+tent."
+
+"Rain!" exclaimed Tom incredulously. "Why, it doesn't look as if it
+ever rained here."
+
+"It doesn't, not more'n about two inches a year," rejoined Zeb, "but
+when it does you'd think ther flood gates uv heaven had been ripped
+wide open."
+
+"Do you think it will rain to-night?" asked Jack.
+
+"It looks uncommon like it," answered Zeb. "See them clouds off there
+yonder?"
+
+He pointed to some heavy-looking masses of vapor hanging above a dim
+range of saw-backed mountains off to the east.
+
+"In my opinion they're plum full of rain," he said.
+
+"In that case we'd better get ready with the trenches," declared Jack.
+He picked up one shovel and gave another to Tom. The latter made a wry
+face but said nothing. Tom liked hard work no better than most boys,
+but he realized that the work had to be done, and so tackled it with
+the best grace he could.
+
+Secretly he wished himself to be with Dick Donovan, who had been
+assigned to go fishing to see if he couldn't get "something" fresh for
+supper. The professor, as usual, was off somewhere collecting
+specimens.
+
+But the task of digging the trenches was not as arduous as it had
+appeared. The sand was soft and yielding, and the shovels made rapid
+work with it. Soon a fairly deep trench was dug round each of the
+temporary shelters.
+
+By the time the lanterns had been filled, and Zeb had cut a goodly
+stack of mesquite wood, everything was ready to begin preparations for
+supper.
+
+"We'll have a blow-out to-night," said Zeb. "Canned salmon, beans,
+crackers, cheese and canned fruit, but don't expect to get that right
+along. I've lived on beans and bacon for six months in this very neck
+of the woods, and thought myself lucky to get that."
+
+"Hullo!" came a cry from the direction of the river.
+
+"There's Dick!" exclaimed both boys, and then as the young reporter
+came into sight, "What luck, Dick?"
+
+"What do you know about this?" and Dick held up a fine string of
+glittering fish. There were catfish, perch and two eels.
+
+"Good; we won't go hungry," said Zeb. "Nothing better than fried eels
+and catfish."
+
+He greased the frying pan with a strip of bacon rind and then skinned
+the scaleless catfish and eels as if he had been doing nothing else
+all his life. Soon the savory odors of the frying with crisp slices of
+bacon, and the aroma of coffee, filled the camp.
+
+The boys were so busy setting out the tin cups and plates that it was
+not till Zeb beat on a tin basin with a spoon to announce that the
+evening meal was ready that anyone noticed that the professor was
+missing. Night was closing in and the sky was overcast.
+
+The boys began to worry. They set up a loud shout.
+
+"Pro-fess-or! Oh, pro-fess-or!"
+
+The little gulch rang with it. But no answer came.
+
+"Now what in the world has happened to him?" frowned Jack. "We must go
+and find him at once. He must have----"
+
+[Illustration: Soon the savory odors of the frying with crisp slices
+of bacon, ...filled the air--_Page_ 208.]
+
+The sentence was never completed. At that instant Zeb set up a shout,
+and a ton of earth and rocks, more or less, came hurtling down the
+steep bank into the camp. The stones and dirt were mingled with
+mesquite bushes and in the midst of the landslide was a figure that
+they made out to be the professor.
+
+Luckily, the avalanche had missed the camp-fire and the supper table,
+and when they had extricated the professor, and brushed him off, the
+boys learned that he had almost missed his way, and being
+shortsighted, in the dark had walked right over the edge of the
+steepest part of the arroyo instead of by a sloping path up above.
+
+However, nothing was injured about him but his feelings, and since his
+bag of specimens was intact, the man of science, after a few minutes,
+was able to sit down and eat with as good an appetite as any of them.
+
+Zeb proved himself a good weather profit. About midnight it started
+raining, and such rain as the boys had never seen. It was not rain. It
+was sheets of water. Even the waterproof tents began to leak, and the
+fact that the trenches had been dug did not serve to keep the floors
+dry, for the hard, sun-baked earth did not absorb the moisture, and
+the downpour speedily spread half an inch or more of water over the
+ground.
+
+"Turn out! turn out!" shouted Dick, who shared one of the three tents
+with the boys.
+
+"What's the matter?" began Tom sleepily, and then splash! went his
+hand into the water.
+
+"Gracious, has the river overflowed?" demanded Jack.
+
+"No, but it's raining handsaws and marlin spikes," cried Dick. "Wow!
+my bed's wet through."
+
+"Same here," cried Jack ruefully. "I guess we'd better get out of
+this."
+
+Outside they found the professor hopping about barefooted in the
+water. He had on his pajamas with a blanket thrown round his shoulders
+for protection against the rain. The boys, despite their discomfort,
+could not help laughing at the odd figure. Zeb joined them, grumbling:
+"We made a big mistake in camping in this arroyo.
+
+I ought to have had better sense. It's nothing more nor less than a
+river. All the desert up above is draining into it."
+
+It was true. The water was almost ankle deep. Luckily, the old shanty
+in which their supplies were stored was raised above the ground, and
+the goods were all covered with a big waterproof canvas.
+
+"Let's camp out in the shanty till daylight," suggested Jack.
+
+"That would be a good idea if it had a roof," commented Zeb dryly.
+
+"Why can't we spread some of the canvas over us?" asked Tom.
+
+This was finally done, and thus passed most of their first night on
+the desert. Yet none of them complained, but made the best of it. The
+boys knew that it is the wisest plan to meet all camping mishaps with
+a smiling face.
+
+By morning the rain had ceased. The sky was clear and the sun shone
+brightly. Their wet bedding and garments were soon dried and then the
+work of unpacking the sections of the Wondership was begun, for they
+were anxious to have the job completed and be on their way as soon as
+possible.
+
+Old McGee had told the truth when he said they would not be molested.
+
+An old Indian jogging by on a spavined horse and wrapped in a dirty
+blanket was the only person they saw all day. He was looking along the
+arroyo for a strayed burro. He stared at them in stolid silence for a
+while and then rode off, shaking his head. No doubt he was at a loss
+to account for such strange goings on.
+
+That evening when Dick took his line down to the river, he met with
+unusually good luck. He had just added a fine carp to his pile of fish
+when, chancing to look up, he saw a boat coming round the bend.
+
+In the craft were three figures, one of whom he recognized instantly
+as Masterson. The recognition was mutual and Masterson, who had the
+oars, started hastily to pull away from the place. But Dick shouted to
+him.
+
+"Don't let me drive you away," he cried.
+
+Masterson shouted back something about "fresh kid" but kept pulling up
+the stream, and soon he was round the bend and out of sight.
+
+"Now, I wonder what he is doing out here?" mused Dick, "and those two
+cronies of his. They look sort of shady to me."
+
+He cudgeled his brains to find a reason for the presence of Masterson
+so far from home, but was unable to arrive at any solution till an
+idea suddenly struck him.
+
+"They're out here trailing us," he muttered. "Yes, I'm sure of it. But
+how in the world did they ever learn our plans? I guess I'll get back
+to camp and put the rest on their guard, for we don't want any spies
+hanging about, and those fellows were out on a spying expedition or I
+miss my guess."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE START FOR THE UNKNOWN.
+
+
+But the days went by, and the Wondership stood once more assembled and
+ready to take the greatest flight of her career, and no further sign
+of the three worthies, whom Dick suspected of designs against them,
+appeared. Zeb went to town once or twice, using a small burro for a
+saddle animal. Jack heard from his father, who said that he was
+progressing well, but was very much worried over money matters.
+
+"If only you can find the Z.2.X.," he wrote, "we can all be happy
+again."
+
+"I will find it," Jack murmured to himself, as he concluded reading
+the letter, and passed it over to Tom for his perusal.
+
+Dick helped with the Wondership and spent the rest of the time fishing
+and hunting. He managed to get a few rabbits, but there was no other
+game in the vicinity. It was too barren for deer, although it was said
+there were plenty of them further down the river. The young reporter,
+who had quite a mechanical genius of his own, constructed a rough sort
+of boat out of boards from the walls of the old shack, and used it on
+his fishing expeditions, "punting" it along with a long pole made from
+a willow sapling from a grove on the river bank some distance below
+where they were camped.
+
+One afternoon the fancy took him to pole up the current and round the
+bend below which Masterson's boat had appeared the evening Dick saw
+and recognized the son of the _Moon_ proprietor.
+
+He had not gone that way before and was surprised to find that,
+instead of the low banks that edged the river where the boys were
+camped, round the bend were steep, almost clifflike acclivities on
+both sides of the stream. In places these were honeycombed with caves,
+running back, apparently, some distance into the bank. Although Dick
+did not know it, these caves had once been the dwelling places of an
+extinct tribe of Indians.
+
+The boy was surprised to see smoke coming from one of them, for he had
+supposed that they were uninhabited.
+
+"Maybe there are Indians up there," thought the boy. "I guess I'll
+give them a look, and maybe get a good picture," for Dick invariably
+carried his camera with him on the chance of getting a good snapshot
+at something or other.
+
+A rough path led up to the cave and it was well worn by feet which
+had, apparently, traversed it recently. Dick reached the entrance of
+the cave and peered in.
+
+It was deserted; but to his astonishment he saw, from the way it was
+fitted up, that whoever lived in it were not Indians. Blankets lay on
+the floor, and the smoke was coming from a fire which had been used
+for cooking and was dying out. The utensils were not such as Indians
+use, being made of agate ware. Then, too, he noticed some old coats
+and other garments hanging on nails that had been driven into the
+wall.
+
+As his eyes grew more accustomed to the light, he saw a suitcase in
+one corner. There were initials on it. Dick made them out to be W. M.
+
+'"W. M.'? Who can that be?" he mused. "Whoever lives here is a white
+man, that is plain. But why is he a hermit? Anyhow, I'd better be
+getting out of this before he comes back. I've really got no business
+in here at all."
+
+At this juncture he heard voices coming from the river. They were
+punctuated by the dip of oars. As he heard the speakers outside,
+Dick's mind suddenly realized who "W. M." was.
+
+"What a chump I was not to think of it before!" he exclaimed. "It's
+William Masterson, of course, and that's his voice outside. Gee
+whillakers, they must have camped here on purpose to spy on us."
+
+Just then it occurred to Dick that he was, as a matter of fact, spying
+on Masterson. He went to the cave door. Below was a boat containing
+Masterson and his two friends. They had apparently been to town for
+supplies, for the boat was full of canned goods and provisions.
+
+Just as Dick got to the door Masterson spied the home-made boat lying
+on the bank at the foot of the cliff.
+
+"Say, fellows," he exclaimed, "somebody's been paying us a call."
+
+"Some thieving Indian, judging from the looks of that boat," said Sam
+Higgins.
+
+"Well, we're not receiving callers of any kind right now," sputtered
+Eph angrily.
+
+Dick crouched back into the doorway of the cave. He was trying to
+think what to do. It was an awkward situation. He didn't want to be
+caught in what looked, on the face of it, like an act of spying, and
+yet he didn't wish Masterson and his cronies to think him a coward.
+
+"Say, fellows," spoke up Higgins suddenly, "you don't think it could
+be one of those kids from the camp below, do you? They may have seen
+us snooping around there at night and got wise to where we are
+hiding."
+
+"It had better not be one of them," said Masterson in a loud,
+threatening voice. "If I catch him, I'll break every bone in his
+body."
+
+"I guess I'll have a fight on my hands," muttered Dick. "Well, serves
+me right for butting in," he added philosophically.
+
+"Let's go up and see who it is?" said Eph. "He must be in the cave."
+
+"You go first," said Sam Higgins, who was not over-brave, "it might be
+a bad man or an Indian."
+
+"Pshaw, I'm not afraid!" said Masterson. "Give me your pistol, Sam, if
+you're scared."
+
+"I'm not scared, but there's no use running into trouble," said Sam.
+"Besides I'm kind of lame. I think I--er--wrenched my ankle getting
+out of the boat."
+
+"I guess you wrenched your nerve," sneered Eph.
+
+Then, headed by Masterson, with the pistol in his grasp, they began
+to ascend the pathway. Dick was in a quandary. But he decided that the
+only way to tackle the problem was to take the bull by the horns. As
+Masterson reached the mouth of the cave the boy dashed out like a
+redheaded thunderbolt.
+
+Taken utterly by surprise, Masterson stepped back.
+
+Bang!
+
+The pistol went off in the air and the next instant Masterson, despite
+his efforts to save himself, toppled off the narrow path and went
+rolling down the bank into the river. Luckily for him, he was a good
+swimmer, and struck out lustily as he came to the surface.
+
+"Wow!" yelled Dick, and charged like a young buffalo at Eph.
+
+Young Compton tried to strike him but Dick, with lowered head, charged
+him in the stomach. With a grunt Eph fell back, and in his fall
+knocked over Sam Higgins, just behind him.
+
+"Whoop-ee!" shouted Dick, rejoicing in his triumph. He leaped over
+the recumbent forms of Eph and Sam and dashed down the path to the
+place where he had beached his boat.
+
+He jumped on board and poled off just as young Masterson reached the
+shore and pulled himself out of the water.
+
+"You infernal young spy!" shrieked Masterson, beside himself with
+rage, "I'll get even with you for this, see if I don't!"
+
+Sam and Eph, who had picked themselves up, shouted other threats at
+Dick. But he turned round and, with a pleasant smile, waved a hand as
+the current carried his boat round the bend. He felt in high good
+humor at the way he had gotten out of a difficult situation. It was
+fortunate for him, though, that he had taken Masterson and his cronies
+so utterly by surprise, otherwise the adventure might have had a
+different conclusion.
+
+He had established one fact, however, and that was that Masterson and
+the others were spying on them every night and watching every step in
+their preparations for the departure for Rattlesnake Island.
+
+That night a strict watch was kept in the camp, all the adventurers
+taking turns at sentry duty. But nobody came near the place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE PROFESSOR'S SECOND DILEMMA.
+
+
+Early the next day old man McGee paid them a call. He came to take
+back the burro they had hired from him for convenience in getting back
+and forth from Yuma. He also wanted to get a ladder which had been
+left at the deserted shanty. The old man rode into camp on a
+razor-backed horse and professed great astonishment when he saw how
+nearly completed the work on the Wondership was.
+
+"But you kain't fool me," he said knowingly. "I may be old but I'm
+wise. That thing fly? Why, you might as well tell me the Nat'nul Hotel
+in Yuma could go kerflopping about in the air. By the way," he went
+on, "frum ther talk in ther town you ain't ther only ones as is goin'
+down ther river. There's three young chaps has bought two boats and
+allows that they're fixin' to take a trip."
+
+"Is that so?" exclaimed Jack with a significant look at his chums. "I
+think we can guess who they are."
+
+But old man McGee was busy fussing with the donkey and didn't hear
+him. He was going to carry the ladder back to town on the little
+creature's back. He lashed the ladder across the saddle so that it
+stuck out on both sides of the burro, who viewed the proceedings with
+a kind of mild surprise. It brayed loudly and flapped its long ears in
+a way that made the boys laugh heartily.
+
+"There," said old man McGee at last, "that's done. Now I reckon I'll
+bid you so-long and good-luck, and be on my way. When are you goin'
+ter start?"
+
+"To-morrow morning," replied Jack, "if everything is all right."
+
+"Hold on a minute," said Tom suddenly, as old man McGee was riding
+off. "I've got a notion for some rabbit pie. Give me the rifle, Dick,
+and I'll go a little way with Mr. McGee, as far as that little willow
+wood where you got the cotton-tails."
+
+"All right," said Dick, "and tell you what I'll do. I'll come, too. I
+can borrow Jack's rifle."
+
+"It's in the tent," said Jack. "Take good care of it."
+
+"I'll do that," promised Dick.
+
+Jack and Zeb went back to their task of putting the finishing touches
+on the Wondership, stocking her lockers with provisions for the
+Rattlesnake Island trip, while old man McGee, accompanied by the two
+boys, rode out of the camp.
+
+The professor was away collecting specimens somewhere and had not been
+seen since breakfast time.
+
+The donkey, carrying its odd burden, walked behind old McGee's horse
+and the boys kept pace alongside, listening to the old prospector's
+everlasting stories of how some day he would strike it rich. His faith
+never wavered. He believed implicitly that eventually he would make
+the "big strike" and live in affluence for the remainder of his life.
+
+The willow grove, where Dick went rabbit-hunting, was up the river and
+on its banks far away from the water nothing grew but cactus,
+greasewood and mesquite. As they neared it the monotony of the walk
+began to pall on Dick. He wanted to have some fun.
+
+He fell behind and took a magnifying glass from his pocket. It was one
+he used in his photographic work. Holding it up he focused the sun's
+rays through it so that they fell in a tiny burning spot on the
+donkey's back. After a few seconds the heat burned through. The donkey
+gave a loud bray and kicked up its heels wildly.
+
+Before old man McGee knew what was happening, the creature had jerked
+the rope by which he was leading it out of the old man's hand and
+dashed off toward the willow wood.
+
+"Hey, come back, consarn ye!" shouted old McGee. "What's the matter
+with ther critter, anyhow? He's gone plum daffy."
+
+Dick, doubled up with laughter, watched the circus. There was the
+donkey with the ladder across its back racing at full speed toward the
+wood, and after it came old McGee on his bony old horse, shouting at
+the top of his voice.
+
+Straight for the wood the donkey raced, kicking up its heels and
+braying loudly. It dashed in among the trees of the willow wood and at
+the same instant there came an appalling yell from among the trees.
+
+"Gracious, what's happened now!" gasped Tom, and then catching Dick's
+laughing eye, he exclaimed:
+
+"Dick, this is some of your work!"
+
+"Maybe," said Dick, still choking with laughter, "but what on earth is
+happening in the wood?"
+
+"Help! Lions! Help! They're after me! Help!"
+
+The cries came thick and fast.
+
+"It's the professor," choked out Dick.
+
+"He says there are lions in there," cried Tom, looking rather
+alarmed, but at this juncture something happened to the donkey that
+momentarily distracted their attention. In trying to pass between two
+saplings the animal had bumped the ladder against them and brought
+itself up with a round turn. But it still struggled forward and kept
+up its braying:
+
+"Cotched, by ginger!" shouted old man McGee. He galloped toward the
+runaway donkey, but the next moment a curious thing happened.
+
+In pressing forward, the donkey had bent the saplings over with the
+ladder until it became entangled in their branches. Suddenly the
+animal ceased struggling and the saplings sprang up, no longer having
+any pressure on them, and the donkey was fairly lifted from its feet
+and carried up into the air. And there he hung, threshing about with
+his hoofs and suspended from the ladder. At the same instant the
+figure of the professor emerged from the wood. He looked rather
+sheepish.
+
+The boys ran up to him.
+
+"What's the matter, professor?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes, you called for help," added Tom.
+
+"Um--er--ah did I call?" inquired the man of science.
+
+"You certainly did. You scared us almost to death," said Dick.
+
+"Something about lions," added Tom.
+
+"Lions--er--did I say _lions_, boys?"
+
+"You did," Dick assured him.
+
+The professor gave a rather shamefaced smile. He looked at the donkey
+suspended from the ladder between the two straightened saplings.
+
+"Um--er--perhaps it would be better to say no more about it," he said.
+"I do not suppose that I am the first man to have been scared by a
+sheep in wolf's clothing."
+
+"Or a donkey in a lion's skin," chuckled Dick.
+
+In the meantime old man McGee had arrived at the donkey's side and was
+scratching his head to think of some way to relieve it from its
+predicament. The boys solved the problem for him by cutting the
+branches that held the ladder and Mr. Donkey came down to earth. The
+professor, with rather a red face, had gone back to his work of
+collecting specimens, which the arrival of the long-eared beast had
+interrupted in such a startling manner.
+
+"Thar, I hope that's taught you some sense," said old man McGee, as
+the donkey was once more on terra firma. As he rode off, Dick burst
+into shouts of laughter. His little joke had certainly turned out to
+be better than he expected and for many days after that he had only to
+slyly introduce some talk about a lion to cause the professor to look
+at him in a very quizzical way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+THE UPPER REGIONS.
+
+
+The boys were up with the sun the next day. It was the morning which
+was to witness the start of the flight for Rattlesnake Island.
+Everything about the Wondership was in readiness for the enterprise,
+and there only remained the tin breakfast utensils and the tents to be
+packed when they had concluded the morning meal.
+
+Naturally excitement ran high. The hunt for the island, too, might be
+a long one. But they felt that ultimately they would find it, that it
+would not be like the three buttes of Peg-leg Smith.
+
+When everything was declared ready, Jack opened the charging-tube of
+the gas reservoir and poured in some of the volatile powder that made
+the lifting vapor. In fifteen minutes the gauge showed a good
+pressure in the tank and the valve was turned.
+
+In the hot sun the balloon bag expanded quickly. At length the bag was
+almost full.
+
+"Everything ready?" cried Jack, at length, when all were on board.
+
+"Ready," said Tom at the engines.
+
+"Then off we go!"
+
+Tom pulled the clutch lever and the propellers whirled. Jack gave the
+steering and controlling wheel an impulse and like a huge bird the
+Wondership shot up. But she rose slowly, for besides the unusual
+number of passengers, she was also carrying a great weight in
+supplies.
+
+As the craft rose three figures watched it from under the concealment
+of a clump of mesquite.
+
+"There they go, boys," said Masterson, for it was he and his two
+cronies.
+
+"Yes, they're off for Rattlesnake Island," sneered Eph. "I hope they
+get bitten."
+
+"I'll bet they don't dream that we know everything about their
+plans," chuckled Sam. "I'd like to get even with that red-headed kid."
+
+"Well, you'll get a chance before long," declared Bill Masterson. "I
+don't see that there's any use in hanging around here any longer," he
+went on. "The thing to do now is to get our boats and go down the
+river."
+
+"Won't they be astonished when they see us," said Eph.
+
+"Maybe they'll try to chase us away. They outnumber us," said the
+timid Sam.
+
+"They'd better not," vaunted Bill Masterson. "I guess we've got as
+good a right to that old island as they have."
+
+"That's right," echoed Eph, following his leader's sentiments. "I
+guess they haven't got any mortgage on it."
+
+Viewed from the Wondership, the desert spread out below was a
+wonderful panorama. Through it, like a deep wound, the Colorado cut
+its way and far beyond were the pale, misty outlines of mountains. As
+they flew onward, the character of the scenery began to change.
+
+The river appeared to sink, while mighty walls, of most gorgeous
+colors, cliffed it in. The rocks glowed with red and yellow and blue
+like a painter's palate. But this was only in the deep canyon. On
+either side the desert, vast and unlimited, stretched away grayly to
+the horizon.
+
+"It must have taken centuries for the river to have cut such a deep
+valley," said Tom, looking down as they flew far above it.
+
+"Some say that the river didn't cut it," said Zeb. "They claim that
+there was a big earthquake or some sort of a shake-up, and that made
+that big hole in the ground."
+
+Below them they could see birds circling above the swiftly racing
+waters flecked with white foam. So far no sign of land answering the
+description of Rattlesnake Island had come in view. But several small,
+isolated spots of land were encountered, and on one, which looked
+something like Rattlesnake Island described on the map, they
+descended.
+
+The boys were delighted at the way the great Wondership settled down
+into the canyon and then came to rest on the back of the island round
+which the water rushed and roared. They scattered and ran about on it,
+enjoying the opportunity to stretch their legs.
+
+Jack, Tom and Dick took a rifle along with them and they were glad
+they had done so, for as they made their way through a patch of brush
+a beautiful deer sprang out and dashed off. Jack had the rifle at his
+shoulder in a minute and the creature bounded into the air, as the
+crack of the report sounded, and then fell dead.
+
+The boy felt some remorse at having killed it, but he knew they would
+be in need of fresh meat and some venison would be a welcome addition
+to the ordinary camp fare. The boys carried the deer back and Zeb
+skillfully skinned and quartered it. While he was doing this, the boys
+speculated as to how the animal could have come to the island.
+
+Zeb set their discussion at rest by explaining that it had probably
+swum the rapids to escape a mountain lion or a lynx. He said that he
+had often shot deer under similar conditions. As it was almost noon,
+they decided to wait on the island till they had eaten lunch. Zeb
+sliced off some venison cutlets and cooked them to a turn over hot
+wood coals. The boys thought they had never tasted anything better
+than the fresh meat.
+
+While the plates and knives and forks were being washed and put away,
+the professor wandered off on his perennial quest of rocks and
+specimens. He said that he would be back in a short time but was
+anxious not to miss the opportunity of finding some possibly rare
+stones.
+
+But everything was ready and the boys were waiting impatiently half an
+hour later, and there was no sign of the professor.
+
+Suddenly they heard his voice shouting to them from the distance.
+
+"What's he saying?" asked Jack.
+
+"Hark!" admonished Tom.
+
+The professor's shouts came plainly to their ears the next minute,
+borne on a puff of wind that swept through the canyon.
+
+"Help! Help!" was the burden of his cries. "Get me out!"
+
+"Now, what's happened to him?" demanded Zeb, with a trace of
+impatience.
+
+"I don't know, but he must be in trouble of some sort," cried Jack.
+
+"Maybe it's another donkey," mischievously suggested Dick.
+
+The cries were redoubled. They waited no longer but started off across
+the island on the run. Zeb carried his big forty-four revolver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+A MUD BATH.
+
+
+The ground was rough and rocky but they made good time. Bursting
+through a screen of trees from beyond which came the professor's
+piteous cries, they received a shock.
+
+The man of science was in the center of a large, round hole full of
+black mud that bubbled and boiled and steamed as if it were alive. All
+that was visible of the professor was the upper part of his body.
+
+Seriously alarmed, the boys shouted to him to keep up his courage, and
+that they would get him out.
+
+"How did you get in?" asked Zeb, cupping his hands.
+
+"I fell in," rejoined the poor professor. "The ground gave way under
+my feet. Hurry and get me out, it's terribly hot."
+
+They looked about them desperately for some means of extricating him
+from his predicament. But just at the moment none was offered, and
+with every struggle the professor was sinking deeper in the black,
+evil-smelling pool of mud.
+
+"Gracious, what are we to do?" cried Jack in despair.
+
+"He's too far out to reach him," said Zeb, equally at a loss.
+
+"But we must do something," chimed in Tom.
+
+Suddenly Zeb had an inspiration. A tree grew on the banks of the mud
+volcano, the sudden caving in of which, under the professor's weight,
+had precipitated him into it.
+
+"If I could get out on that branch," said Zeb, "I might be able to
+bend it enough to bring my feet over him and then work back toward the
+edge of the mudhole."
+
+"It's worth trying--anything is worthy trying," agreed Jack.
+
+Zeb took off his coat and then shinned up the tree. Then, hanging by
+his hands he began working out along the branch. As he went it bent
+till it hung right over the mudhole. Before long his feet dangled
+above the professor's head.
+
+"Now then, professor," panted Zeb, "take hold on my feet and work
+along toward the edge of the hole with me."
+
+The professor seized Zeb's boots with the grasp of a drowning man. The
+branch cracked ominously.
+
+"Easy thar, professor," warned Zeb earnestly. "Don't pull more'n you
+can help or we'll both be in the soup."
+
+The professor lightened his grip and slowly, hand over hand, Zeb began
+the slow journey back along the branch. It was a feat only possible to
+a man whose muscles were of iron. And before it was over even Zeb was
+almost overcome. Perspiration streamed from his forehead and soaked
+his shirt as he dropped from the branch, having accomplished the
+journey and pulled the professor to the bank.
+
+[Illustration: The professor seized Zeb's boots with the grasp of a
+drowning man.--_Page_ 240.]
+
+"That's what I call toeing a man out of trouble," punned Dick, in
+the general relief that followed.
+
+"Good thing it warn't no further," puffed Zeb, mopping his forehead.
+"My arms feels as if they'd been stretched on one of them racks you
+read about in the history books."
+
+"How did it happen, professor?" asked Jack, as they scraped the mud
+off the scientist.
+
+"It's hard to say," was the response. "I was walking along, intent on
+my collecting, when I came to a barren patch of ground that was
+crusted over with stuff that looked like salt. I stepped out on it to
+investigate and suddenly in I went. Faugh! how it smells."
+
+"Yes, it isn't exactly perfumed," said Jack. "But how did such a place
+come there?"
+
+"It's one of those mud-springs of hot water that are found in several
+places throughout the West," said the scientist. "It must have been
+quiescent for some time and then the thin skin of alkaline earth
+formed over it. In Europe, or if we had that spring near a large
+city, it would be possible to make a fortune with it."
+
+"In what way?" asked Dick.
+
+"As a curative bath," replied the professor. "Every year people spend
+fortunes to go to Europe and take just such baths."
+
+"Reckon I'd go without washin' then," commented Zeb.
+
+"I'd just as soon bathe in rotten eggs," said Dick.
+
+"Well," said Jack, "I guess we've got off about all the mud we can for
+the present. We'd better be getting back. It's mighty fortunate that
+we came in time."
+
+"Yes, I was slipping into the stuff all the time," said the professor.
+"If I'd been alone on the island I might have never been seen again,"
+he added in quite a matter-of-fact tone. "It's too bad I lost that bag
+of fossils, though. I had some fine specimens."
+
+"Goodness, no wonder you sank down!" exclaimed Jack. "Why didn't you
+let go of them?"
+
+The scientist was mildly surprised.
+
+"Why, how could I," he asked, "until it became a question of life or
+death? It's too bad I had to lose them," and he shook his head
+mournfully at the thought.
+
+The journey was soon resumed, the Wondership rising buoyantly out of
+the dismal canyon. They were not sorry to get back to the upper air
+for the gloom of the deep gulch had affected their spirits. But so
+much time had been consumed in getting the professor out of his
+predicament that it was not long before twilight set in and they still
+had caught no glimpse of anything resembling the island they were in
+search of.
+
+They decided to come to earth and make camp for the night and resume
+the search in the morning. They made a hearty supper off the venison
+which remained, and turned in, without setting any watch, as there was
+no necessity for it out there with not a soul about for scores of
+miles.
+
+It was about midnight when Jack was awakened by a wild yell from Tom.
+
+"Ow! Ouch! Leggo my toe!" the younger of the Boy Inventors was
+shouting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+NIGHT ON THE COLORADO.
+
+
+"What's the matter? What has happened?" cried Jack.
+
+"Is it Indians?" cried Dick, who had a lively imagination.
+
+"Something grabbed my foot," declared Tom.
+
+"Grabbed your foot?" repeated Jack.
+
+"Well, maybe, nibbled at it, would be better," replied Tom. "It isn't
+hurt, but I was awakened by it. I guess the thing, whatever it was,
+must have been scared away."
+
+"What could it have been?" came from Dick.
+
+"Perhaps it was a bear," suggested Tom.
+
+"A bear, nonsense. I guess it was all imagination," scoffed Jack. "You
+ate too much at supper, Tom."
+
+"It was not imagination, I tell you," retorted Tom indignantly. "I
+felt it just as plainly as anything."
+
+"Well, I don't see what----" began Jack and then he broke off.
+
+From outside the tent had come an appalling crash of tin dishes,
+followed by unearthly grunts and squeals. The uproar was terrific. It
+sounded as if every piece of tinware in the camp was being hurled and
+battered around.
+
+"What under the sun----?" gasped Jack.
+
+"It's Indians; they've attacked the camp," cried Dick.
+
+A weird screech split the night. Jack seized up a rifle.
+
+"Come on, boys," he cried, but it might have been noticed that Dick
+was not particularly alert in following.
+
+Zeb and the professor rushed out of their tents and their shouts added
+to the confusion. There was a bright moon and by its light Jack saw a
+small, peculiarly-shaped animal charging about blindly here and there.
+The next minute he saw, too, that the creature's head was caught fast
+in an enameled cooking pot.
+
+It rushed about and uttered the muffled squeals that had attracted
+their attention. Jack raised his rifle and fired. The creature fell
+dead at the first shot. Zeb and Jack rushed up to it.
+
+"A badger!" exclaimed Zeb, "and he's got his greedy head stuck fast in
+that mush cooker."
+
+"And in charging about trying to get it off he'd made a wreck of our
+pantry!" exclaimed Jack, looking at the tin utensils scattered in
+every direction about the wooden box in which they were kept.
+
+"It must have been that badger that came sniffing at my toes," said
+Tom.
+
+"Or maybe it was Indians," laughed Jack, looking slyly at Dick, who
+was glad that they couldn't see how red he turned.
+
+"Indians?" exclaimed the professor guilelessly. "Were there any
+Indians about?"
+
+"Dick thought he saw some," explained Jack with a chuckle.
+
+The dead badger was pulled out of the pot into which it stuck its
+head to lick out the remains of some oatmeal that had adhered to its
+side, and the boys went back to bed. But they did not sleep much after
+the uproar into which the camp had been thrown, and were glad when it
+began to grow light.
+
+Zeb cooked a fine breakfast to which he urged everybody to do justice,
+as they had a long and possibly a trying day ahead of them. The badger
+was given decent burial by Dick.
+
+"Let its fate be a lesson to you," said Jack, at which they all
+laughed, for Dick was always on the spot at meal times.
+
+When the morning meal was finished and the things all packed away, the
+Wondership was inflated and soared into the clear air. Nights and
+early mornings on the desert are cool, and it was crisp and
+invigorating in the hours before the sun had risen high. But by noon
+the heat grew blistering, and they were still soaring above the river
+without a trace of Rattlesnake Island being visible.
+
+However, that afternoon they sighted a group of islands of which the
+largest at once attracted their attention. A prominent feature of
+Rattlesnake Island, as outlined on the map, was a big dead pine,
+situated like a beacon, at the summit of the peak into which the
+island rose.
+
+The river at this point broadened out. Great cliffs overhung it. They
+were made up of strata of brilliant colors. It looked from above as if
+they had been painted by some titanic sign painter--nature, the
+artist.
+
+Jack was the first to call attention to the island which had caught
+his eye while he scanned the river below them with the binoculars. He
+at once noticed its formation, long and narrow, with a high, rocky
+peak rising out from amongst trees and bushes which clothed it almost
+to the summit.
+
+Then his eye caught a great white pine trunk, standing like a
+flagpole almost at the apex of the peak.
+
+"Hurrah, boys!" he cried. "I guess that's the place. Welcome to
+Rattlesnake Island!"
+
+Tom was steering, "spelling" Jack at the wheel.
+
+"You can see the island?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes, or if it isn't it, it's like enough to be its twin brother."
+
+Everybody began to get excited. Zeb took the glasses and after a
+careful scrutiny and a reference to the map, declared that the island
+below them tallied in every way with its description.
+
+"Then down we go," said Jack.
+
+"All right," nodded Tom, who was almost as good an air pilot as his
+cousin.
+
+The Wondership dropped rapidly. Soon they were immediately above the
+island, which was now seen to be rocky and precipitous, except at one
+end where there was a great open place, bare and desolate looking.
+
+On the edges of this cleared spot, which looked swampy and
+unwholesome, were serried rows of trees, every one of which was dead
+as if from a blight, and offering with their gaunt, leafless branches
+a sharp contrast to the green leafiness of the rest of the island.
+
+Jack scanned the place sharply as they dropped down and Tom prepared
+to land on the edge of the swamp. As they got closer to the ground, he
+suddenly became aware of something that caused him a sharp shock of
+surprise.
+
+"Why there's somebody on the island!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Somebody on the island?" echoed Zeb incredulously.
+
+"Yes, or at least there's a dwelling place."
+
+The boy pointed to a rude sort of shack built of logs and roofed with
+boughs, which stood on the edge of the cleared space.
+
+"Great Methuselah!" ejaculated Zeb. "Can someone have stolen a march
+on us?"
+
+"I don't know, but it looks queer, and see, there's a shovel. Somebody
+has been digging here."
+
+"But who could it be?" demanded Tom, mystified.
+
+"Gosh! Looks as if we've bin euchered after all," grumbled Zeb.
+
+The Wondership came to earth at the edge of the lifeless-looking, bare
+space. They clambered out of the machine and stood on what was,
+undoubtedly, Rattlesnake Island, for every landmark on the map had
+been verified as they dropped.
+
+They looked about them for a minute and then Zeb drew his revolver out
+of the holster and began idly twiddling the cylinder.
+
+"I want ter make sure she's in workin' order," he said with a grim
+comprehension of the lips, "before we do any investigating."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE ISLAND OF MYSTERY.
+
+
+There was an air of oppression, hard to explain, about the island. But
+they all felt it. The boys were inclined to talk in whispers and even
+Dick Donovan's usual lively spirits seemed daunted. There was
+something about the blistered, barren look of the cleared space on the
+edge of which they had landed that gave them all an odd feeling of
+melancholy.
+
+Zeb was the first to shake this off.
+
+"Our first job," he said, "is to find out who is on the island and
+what they've been doing."
+
+Here and there in the black, swampy-looking bare space, they could see
+where holes had been dug, but when they examined the spade, which Jack
+had seen from the Wondership as they descended, they found that it was
+rusty and had evidently not been used for a long time.
+
+It was the same in the rude hut which they examined. Some rusty
+utensils and a few ragged old garments were all that was inside. The
+dust lay thick on the floor and a large squirrel leaped out of the
+roof as they entered.
+
+"Well, whoever was on the island has moved on again," declared Zeb.
+
+"Or died," said Jack in a low tone.
+
+"Wa'al, what I say is," observed Zeb, "ther sooner we git at that
+what-yer-may-call-um stuff and get away agin, the better it'll be for
+all of us. There's suthin' about this island I don't like."
+
+The others agreed, all except the professor, who, on hands and knees,
+was examining some rocks with his magnifying glass.
+
+"Where shall we make camp?" asked Dick.
+
+"I don't much fancy this side of the island, somehow," said Jack, "but
+we could pitch the tents on that little plateau up there and be
+comfortable and have a good view up and down the river at the same
+time."
+
+And so it was arranged. Leaving the Wondership on the edge of the
+clearing, they made camp on the flat ledge of sandy soil interspersed
+with rocks that Jack had selected. From it they had a good view in
+both directions. Above them was a small island, and below them the
+river leaped and roared in a series of big rapids.
+
+Their preparations for camping occupied all the afternoon. It was
+supper time when they had finished and everything was shipshape and
+comfortable. In the meantime Dick had wandered off with the rifle and
+returned with four good-sized rabbits and three squirrels which Zeb
+cooked into a savory stew.
+
+They turned in early as they had all worked hard and were tired. Just
+what time it was that he awakened, Jack did not know. But he thought
+it was after midnight. Taking his watch he went to the door of the
+tent to look at it in the moonlight, as he did not wish to arouse the
+others by striking a light.
+
+The moon flooded the island. Jack looked about him, enjoying the
+beauty of the scene. The cliffs were great masses of black and white
+and the rushing river gleamed like silver. He glanced toward the black
+waste, on the edge of which they left the Wondership. The next instant
+he uttered a startled exclamation. Above the bare patch of
+dark-colored earth tall white figures were dancing, gleaming in the
+moonlight.
+
+Jack's heart gave a bound and he caught his breath for an instant.
+Then he felt inclined to laugh at his own fears. What he had taken for
+ghostly figures were columns of vapor writhing and twisting as they
+steamed upward from the bare end of the island. What caused them, Jack
+did not know. He noticed, too, that the whole patch of barren land
+glowed with a strange phosphorescence like rotted wood.
+
+Fascinated by the spectacle, he stood gazing at it. There was
+something eerie about the dancing, pirouetting columns of vapor. They
+looked like a party of ghosts dancing a quadrille. They twisted and
+contorted and bowed and soared upward and sank again in a kind of
+rhythm.
+
+"Gracious, this is a spooky sort of place," thought Jack. "I wonder
+what causes those wavering columns? Maybe some sort of hidden hot
+springs like the one the professor fell into. I know one thing, I
+don't like this island overmuch. As Zeb said, there is something queer
+about it--something in the air. I don't know what, but I for one won't
+be sorry when we leave it."
+
+He fell to musing about his father waiting so many miles away for news
+of the discovery that was to rehabilitate his fortunes and place the
+radio telephone in the list of practical inventions that have created
+an epoch in the world's history.
+
+"Poor old dad," he thought "After all, he's really having the most
+trying part of this thing. Waiting back there for he doesn't know
+what, and with nothing to do but wait. I wonder if we are going to
+succeed? We will, we must! But, supposing that the map was wrong and
+that----"
+
+His musing broke off suddenly and he crouched forward watching
+intently. His eyes were staring wide-open and startled at the
+Wondership. Its bulk lay blackly against the faint, phosphorescent
+glow of the black barren.
+
+Then he felt his scalp tighten and his mouth go dry while his heart
+seemed to stop for an instant and then pound furiously, shaking his
+frame.
+
+For a second he had seen something that had almost startled him into a
+cry. A dark figure was creeping round the Wondership, crouched like an
+ape as it examined the craft.
+
+The boy had hardly caught a glimpse of it before it vanished, gliding
+swiftly like an animal into the brush. Jack rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Am I seeing things?" he asked himself, "but no, I'm positive, as sure
+as I stand here, that that was a human figure sneaking about down
+there. Who could it have been?"
+
+Jack did not sleep much more that night. The thought that they were
+not alone on the island was a disquieting one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THROUGH THE WOODS.
+
+
+The next morning Jack watched his opportunity, and under the pretext
+of hunting, left camp after breakfast and made his way to the side of
+the Wondership. He wanted to examine the vicinity for footmarks. But
+he found none, which was not surprising, for the ground on which the
+craft had been brought to rest was hard and firm, and not likely to
+take on any impressions.
+
+In the bright, sunny glow it was hard for the boy to believe that he
+had actually seen the mysterious figure in the moonlight. But although
+he tried to assure himself that he had been the victim of an illusion,
+and that he had mistaken the shadow of a waving tree branch for a man,
+Jack knew that he was not laboring under a mistake. He was certain he
+had seen rightly; but he decided, for the present, to say nothing to
+his companions about the events of the night.
+
+Having failed to find any tracks round the Wondership, he started off
+through the trees on his hunt. He was traversing a small glade when,
+in a clump of flowering bushes, he heard a sudden scuffling noise.
+
+Startled, he stopped. The sound came again and this time it was
+accompanied by a shrill scream as of some creature in pain. Jack
+parted the bushes and made his way through them. On the other side he
+came across a rabbit. The little creature was struggling violently and
+squealing with the peculiarly human screech that rabbits have when in
+pain.
+
+The boy saw that it had been caught in some way and could not get
+away. Greatly mystified, he dropped to his knees beside it and the
+next instant solved the puzzle.
+
+The rabbit was caught in a trap ingeniously made from pliable willow
+twigs and set in a "rabbit run." For a minute the full significance of
+his discovery did not dawn upon Jack. Then it came like a bolt from
+the blue.
+
+Somebody on the island, other than themselves, had set that trap!
+Perhaps it was the strange, half-ape-like man he had seen by the
+Wondership the night before. The boy looked round him in the silent
+wood as if he half expected to see somebody watching him.
+
+He was not afraid, but he felt that creepy feeling that accompanies
+the mysterious. Suddenly he recollected that he had left his rifle
+behind when he plunged into the bushes.
+
+He remembered this when the desire came to him to put the rabbit out
+of its misery. It had been caught by the hind leg and had wrenched it
+out of joint in its frantic struggles to get free. Jack made his way
+back to where he had left his rifle. But when he got back to the trap
+ready to end the poor creature's life, the rabbit was not there!
+
+The trap was empty!
+
+Then he looked about him. The ground was covered with blood and fur
+as if the rabbit had been torn to pieces.
+
+"Some animal," was his first thought. Then, on examining the trap, he
+found that the thong which had ensnared the rabbit had not been broken
+or torn loose as would have been the case had some wild creature
+pounced on the rabbit and dragged it off.
+
+It had been untied!
+
+Jack had just made this discovery when he noticed something fluttering
+from a thornbush. He was sure it had not been there before, for he had
+noted the surroundings of the trap carefully. He examined the object
+that had caught his attention. It was a bit of canvas, seemingly torn
+from a garment made of that material.
+
+"There _is_ somebody else on the island!" gasped Jack, looking round
+with white cheeks.
+
+He clutched his rifle firmly. Looking about him he half expected to
+see some wild face peering at him out of parted bushes. But nothing of
+the sort happened. Feeling very uncomfortable, Jack came away from
+the place and made his way back to camp.
+
+This time he made up his mind to confide in Zeb. The prospector was as
+mystified as Jack over the events of the night and the incident of the
+rabbit trap. But he was unable to throw any light on the affair.
+
+"It might be an Indian," he said, "or----"
+
+"It might be the man that built that hut and left the shovel sticking
+in that barren place down yonder," said Jack.
+
+"In that case, wouldn't he be livin' in ther hut instead of snoopin'
+round the island?" asked Zeb.
+
+This view seemed to be incontrovertible. At noon the professor, who
+had been scouting over the island looking for specimens which might
+give him some clue as to the mineral deposits they had come in search
+of, arrived in camp breathless and indignant.
+
+"A joke's a joke," he said to the boys, "but this is going too far."
+
+"What's the matter, professor?" asked Dick.
+
+"Yes, what's happened?" asked Tom, who saw that the man of science
+was really angry, and for some reason blamed them for whatever had
+irritated him.
+
+"As if you didn't know," declared the professor. "I set my bag of
+specimens down on a rock while I went to investigate a
+peculiar-looking formation."
+
+"Well?" said Jack.
+
+"Well, I heard a soft footstep and the crackling of some twigs. I
+looked round and my bag of specimens had gone. Now which of you boys
+played that foolish joke on me?"
+
+"I'll give you my word we know nothing about it, professor," declared
+Tom. "Dick and I have been working all the morning unpacking stuff
+from the Wondership."
+
+The professor looked at them incredulously.
+
+"That's right," struck in Zeb, "they haven't been out of my sight."
+
+"But--but," stammered the professor, "my dear sir, that bag of
+specimens didn't walk off, you know. Besides," he added, "I heard a
+human footfall distinctly."
+
+"It may not have been the boys, though," spoke up Jack seriously.
+
+"Indeed, who else then?" inquired the professor stiffly.
+
+"An unwelcome neighbor," replied Jack. "We are not alone on this
+island."
+
+"Not alone? What do you mean?" demanded the professor in thunderstruck
+tones.
+
+"Just this, that there is someone else on it. Who or what it is I
+don't know."
+
+And Jack went on to explain all that he had seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE SECRET AT LAST.
+
+
+Mysteries are always uncomfortable. As Jack proceeded with his
+narrative, Dick and Tom looked nervously about them. Even the boys'
+two elders looked grave. The presence of a man on the island was
+almost inexplicable. But Jack's story was so circumstantial that there
+was no room to suppose that he might be mistaken. Besides, he had the
+bit of canvas to show, the scrap that he had taken from the thornbush.
+
+After dinner Tom and Dick resumed their work of unloading necessaries
+from the Wondership. Jack and the two elder members of the party
+discussed plans.
+
+"You haven't found any trace of mineral-bearing rock yet, have you,
+professor?" asked Jack.
+
+The professor shook his head.
+
+"Not a speck of anything that even remotely corresponds with the
+black sand that Zeb brought East with him," said the man of science,
+dejectedly.
+
+"It isn't possible that we have been fooled," said Zeb.
+
+"Or landed on the wrong island," struck in Jack.
+
+"It must be the right island," declared Zeb.
+
+"How do you make that out?" asked Jack.
+
+"Well, it's got every mark on it that the map gives, for one thing,"
+said Zeb.
+
+"That's so," agreed the professor, and then he added hopefully:
+"However, I haven't covered half the ground yet."
+
+Tom and Dick came tramping back at that juncture. They carried some
+canned goods and Dick bore the rusty shovel that they had seen the day
+before sticking up in the black barren.
+
+"It was sticky and moist out there," he said, "but I figured we could
+always use this shovel, so I went out and brought it along."
+
+He flung himself down full length in the shade for it was hot and
+there was not a breath of wind to fan the canyon. The professor, who
+sat facing Dick, concentrated his attention for an instant on the
+soles of the youngster's boots. Then he leaped up with a yell that
+startled them.
+
+"What is it? The wild man?" gasped Dick, looking round him in alarm.
+
+"No, your boots, your boots; look at them!" cried the professor.
+
+"Is there a snake on them?" cried Dick, preparing to jump up.
+
+"Don't move! Don't move for your life!" fairly screamed the dumpy
+little geologist, springing forward. He fell on his knees at Dick's
+boots as if they had been sacred, and with trembling fingers flaked
+off, into his left palm, some black mud which stuck to them.
+
+Then he stood erect, his face aglow with triumph and enthusiasm such
+as the man of science rarely permitted himself.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, with a flourish, "there is no reason to look
+further for the mineral-bearing ground."
+
+"You have found it?" choked out Jack.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"On Dick Donovan's boots."
+
+They looked at him as if they thought he had suddenly gone demented.
+Dick examined his boots carefully as if he expected to see money
+plastered all over them.
+
+The professor extended his palm. In it lay the black earth he had
+scraped from Dick's boots. In it tiny particles glittered and gleamed
+like myriads of infinitesimal eyes.
+
+"Z. 2. X.," said the professor in solemn tones, and he waved his hand
+down toward the black barren where the moist, unhealthy-looking bare
+patch lay quivering and sweltering in the sun. A kind of haze hung
+above it, like a very thin fog.
+
+"There it is," he went on, "down there. Waiting to be extracted from
+that black earth. Look."
+
+He shook the black earth from his palm. Where it had lain there was a
+red, irritated-looking patch. The professor showed it. It looked like
+a slight burn.
+
+"Did that stuff do it?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes; and that's almost as definite a proof as an analysis, of its
+intense radio activity. You noticed that the sample that Zeb had was
+enclosed in a leaden tube. That was the reason. Such powerful stuff
+would inflict bad burns if not handled properly."
+
+"So that was why you made us include asbestos gloves and foot
+coverings and black goggles in the outfit?" cried Tom, who had been
+much puzzled over the reason for that part of the equipment.
+
+"That was why," said the professor, "and that also is the reason we
+brought along those lead containers. Z. 2. X. or its ally, radium, or
+in fact vanadium or any of the allied radio-active metals, would
+destroy any other sort of container."
+
+"Let's go down now and start digging," suggested impulsive Dick.
+
+"Don't venture out there till you are fully equipped for the job,"
+said the professor. "Serious results might ensue. In the meantime, I
+am going to analyze this sample in order to be doubly sure."
+
+Jack gave a deep sigh of relief. After all, it was not a dream. They
+had found the valuable earth. It was now only a question of
+transportation. His father's fortunes were saved. The radio-'phone
+would be rushed to perfection and placed on the market within a short
+time of their return home.
+
+While Jack lay back and indulged in daydreams, the others watched the
+professor as he tested the black sand over a portable assaying furnace
+and made all sorts of experiments to determine its value and the
+proportion of the different precious metals contained in it.
+
+There was a slight rustling in the bushes behind him. Jack, whose
+nerves had been rather on edge since the occurrences of the preceding
+night and that morning, faced round quickly.
+
+The next instant he uttered a loud shout.
+
+Peering out of the bushes was a hideous, hairy face, more like an
+ape's than a human being's. From it glowed two wild, piercing eyes,
+like those of a beast of prey.
+
+As Jack shouted and the others started toward him, the face vanished
+like a flash.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE INTERLOPERS.
+
+
+"Well, we'll git ter ther bottom uv this afore we leave ther island,"
+declared Zeb vehemently, "but right now, pussonally, I'm more
+interested in gitting those lead carboys filled up with Z. 2. X. and
+gitting away from here."
+
+"So are we," said Jack, thinking of his father.
+
+They all donned their asbestos gloves and foot coverings under the
+professor's directions and put on the huge black goggles that had been
+brought along at the scientist's directions.
+
+"I guess we'd scare that wild man into conniption fits if he could see
+us now," chuckled Tom, surveying his mates as they started out for the
+black barren.
+
+"Yes, we look like a lot of men from Mars," agreed Dick.
+
+Armed with shovels they attacked the dark, soft earth at a place the
+professor indicated. For an hour or more they worked and filled three
+of the lead carboys. Then Jack spoke.
+
+"It's queer," he said, "but I begin to feel terribly tired, and I
+haven't worked long, either."
+
+"So do I," said Tom. "I don't feel as if I could lift another
+shovelful."
+
+"I'm all in," added Dick, throwing down his spade.
+
+"Same here. Jes' 'bout tuckered out," chimed in Zeb.
+
+"It's the effect of the stuff we are working in," said the professor.
+"Anyhow, we've done enough for to-day. We'll load the lead carboys on
+the Wondership and then knock off. I don't want you boys to get sick."
+
+They took the loaded carboys to the grounded craft and the professor
+sealed and soldered a cover on each of them. Then they went back to
+the camp. Curiously, as soon as they reached it, the lassitude they
+had felt while working on the black barren left them. Jack proposed a
+hunting trip to Tom. Dick said he wanted to write up his notes from
+which, on their return, he was going to construct a big "story" for
+his paper.
+
+The two chums struck out across the island. They met with fairly good
+luck. Jack brought down some rabbits and a partridge. Tom got three
+partridges and some squirrels. Game appeared to be plentiful on the
+island and Jack had a theory that at one time it must have been
+connected with the mainland.
+
+At last their walking brought them out on the upper end of the island
+facing the smaller spot of land above. As they emerged from the trees,
+both boys got a big surprise.
+
+Two boats had just been beached there!
+
+"What in the world!" stammered out Jack.
+
+"Who can----" began Tom, when the question was answered. The boys saw
+three figures coming down to the beach. They, seemingly, had been
+looking for a camp site.
+
+"It's that fellow, Bill Masterson," explained Jack.
+
+"So it is, and those other two are his cronies. The sneaks, they've
+followed us here!" cried Tom indignantly.
+
+"Let's watch from behind these bushes and see what they do," said
+Jack.
+
+They watched from a place of concealment while the three youths on the
+island above unloaded the second boat which they had towed down the
+river, carrying their camping equipment and provisions in it. They set
+up their tents quite boldly in full view of the other island and then
+proceeded to build a fire.
+
+"How on earth did they get down the river without having a spill?"
+cried Jack.
+
+"How did they know where Rattlesnake Island was?" wondered Tom,
+neither of the boys, of course, knowing of the opened letters.
+
+"They seem prepared to make a long stay," commented Tom, after a
+minute, "but it's a wonder they weren't wrecked."
+
+"I don't know," said Jack. "Zeb says the river is much higher now
+than he has ever seen it. That means that the rapids are not so
+dangerous as at low water. But they were taking quite a chance, at
+that."
+
+The boys watched for a while longer and then returned to camp with
+their game and their news.
+
+"If they try to land on this island, we'll soon chase 'em off,"
+declared Dick vehemently.
+
+"Then they'd have a case at law agin us," said Zeb.
+
+"How do you mean?" asked Jack.
+
+"Wa'al, we ain't filed no claim yet and in the eyes of the law them
+deposits down there in the black barren is as much theirs as ours."
+
+That evening Zeb occupied himself with making several signs of
+intention to file claim which he intended to post all round the black
+barren, thus marking it off as if it had been a mine. Before they went
+to bed, Jack and Tom made another excursion to the upper end of the
+island where they watched the campfires of the interlopers for some
+time.
+
+Suddenly, while they watched, they saw one of the boats with three
+figures in it shoved off. The craft began to drop down the river.
+Masterson, who was at the oars, steered straight for Rattlesnake
+Island.
+
+"They're going to land here," declared Jack.
+
+"What do you think of that for nerve," gasped Tom.
+
+"The worst of it is, we can't stop them."
+
+"No, that's so. Let's hide behind this rock and see what they do."
+
+The boys slipped behind a big boulder and a moment later the boat was
+beached.
+
+"Well, here we are," came in Eph's voice, "and if the stuff is worth
+all you say it is, we ought to get enough out in a couple of nights to
+make us rich."
+
+"Gee! I can hardly wait till it's time to start digging," said Sam
+Higgins. "Here we are, on Tom Tiddler's ground, picking up gold and
+silver."
+
+"Wait till we get it before you start hollering," said Masterson
+gruffly.
+
+"What time will we start over?" asked Sam.
+
+"About midnight. It will be plenty of time."
+
+"But how are we going to locate it?" objected Eph.
+
+"We can see where they've been digging, can't we?" said Bill
+Masterson, "or if they haven't started yet, we can hang around and
+watch till they do."
+
+The three worthies sat under a rock not far from where the boys were
+and talked. It appeared that Bill Masterson had read up on mining and
+claim law and knew that the boys could not order them off the island.
+They had a right to take all of the mineral-bearing earth that they
+could.
+
+Suddenly, however, their talk stopped.
+
+"What are you doing, Eph?" demanded Sam indignantly.
+
+"Nothing. What do you mean?" asked Eph in an astonished voice.
+
+"You threw a rock at me."
+
+"I didn't."
+
+"You did. Ouch! There's another."
+
+"One hit me, too," cried Eph, springing up, and at the same moment a
+yell came from Masterson.
+
+Jack and Tom, as much surprised as the three marauders, heard the
+rocks pelting around them. Suddenly they looked up. Standing on a high
+rock above the place where Masterson and his cronies were talking, was
+a strange-looking figure in tattered clothes outlined in the
+moonlight.
+
+He was busily hurling rocks down at the intruders. Suddenly a
+demoniacal laugh split the air and the creature vanished, running
+swiftly, crouched, with long arms hanging.
+
+"It's the wild man!" gasped Tom, while the three worthies on the beach
+uttered a startled cry.
+
+"It's ghosts, that's what it is," declared Sam Higgins shuddering.
+
+"Nonsense. It's those kids. That's who it is," said Bill, but his
+voice was rather shaky.
+
+"I never heard anything human laugh like that," declared Eph. "Ugh! it
+makes my blood run cold."
+
+"Maybe we'd better go back," said Sam. "If we've got a right here I'd
+just as soon land in the daylight."
+
+"You're a fine pair of babies," growled Bill. "I'm sorry I brought you
+along. Ghosts indeed--Wow! what was that?"
+
+Another long ringing peal of laughter sounded through the night. It
+reverberated against the steep walls of the canyon and was flung
+mockingly from crag to crag. The boys felt their blood chill as they
+heard it. There was something diabolical in the merriment of the wild
+man who, they knew, was making the hideous sounds.
+
+"I'm going back to the other island," declared Sam.
+
+"If you move I'll knock your head off," said Masterson. "It's just a
+trick of those kids to scare us, that's all it is."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+TRIUMPH.
+
+
+It was midnight. The moon rode high in a cloudless sky, and the camp
+of the Boy Inventors, to all appearances, was wrapped in slumber.
+Through the woods came three creeping, cautious figures. Each carried
+a spade and a sack. They paused by the camp and looked about them.
+
+Then, by the bright moonlight, they saw the bare plateau below. The
+black barren where the adventurers had been working that afternoon.
+Masterson was the first to see traces of digging. He seized Eph's arm
+and pointed.
+
+"That's the place," he said in a hoarse whisper. "See, they've been at
+work there already."
+
+"Tom Tiddler's ground," whispered Eph.
+
+"I guess we'll get some of it, too," chuckled Sam, who had gotten over
+his fright in a sudden greed at the thought of riches.
+
+Silently, for they had sacks tied round their feet, the three
+interlopers crept down the rocky slope toward the black barren. The
+dark ground, thickly sown with mineral wealth, glittered in the
+moonlight as if a frost had fallen on it and made it gleam
+iridescently with millions of sparkling points of light.
+
+As the trio stole down the slope, dark figures from the Boy Inventors'
+camp followed them. Led by Zeb, they found hiding places and watched
+operations as Masterson and his cronies began to dig. They wielded
+their shovels frantically.
+
+"And we can't stop them," groaned Dick.
+
+"Wait a minute," said the professor.
+
+They continued to watch, and before many minutes had passed they saw
+Sam Higgins lay down his shovel with a grunt.
+
+"Go on and dig," ordered Masterson.
+
+"Yes, hurry up, we haven't got all night," urged Eph.
+
+Sam made a few more feeble movements and then quit.
+
+'"I can't do any more," he said languidly.
+
+"Ouch! my hands are burning," cried Eph suddenly, "and I feel as if
+all my bones had turned to water. What's the matter with the place?"
+
+After a few minutes more both Eph and Sam gave up, but Masterson stuck
+doggedly to his task, although his hands were burning terribly, and
+the radio-active stuff was eating through the sacking on his feet. At
+last he, too, had to give in. They were too weak to carry the sacks
+they had partially filled across the island, owing to the effects of
+the black barren, and staggeringly they hid them to call for them at a
+later time.
+
+"I thought so," said the professor, as the hidden watchers saw
+Masterson and the other two wearily clamber up the slope. "They'll
+have bad sores to-morrow and may be crippled for some time."
+
+"But they'll recover?" said Jack, whose conscience began to smite him.
+
+"Oh, yes, but they will have quite a lesson first," rejoined the
+professor.
+
+"Let's see what they do next," suggested Jack, and he and Tom
+carefully made their way to where the trio had left the boat.
+Masterson ordered Sam to get on board; but just as the timorous youth
+was about to obey another hideous laugh from near at hand startled him
+so that he almost jumped out of his skin.
+
+He leaped forward, but in his alarm missed the boat and gave it a
+shove that sent it into the stream. Sam fell flat on his face, while
+Masterson, with an exclamation of dismay, leaped for the boat. But the
+swift current had it in its grasp and bore it rapidly away. Masterson
+sprang on Sam and began beating him violently as the cause of all the
+trouble. It was serious enough for them. The loss of the boat had
+marooned them on the island.
+
+The boat drifted past a rocky point further down the island shore. Had
+they been there, they would have been able to seize it. They watched
+it with alarmed eyes as it sailed down the current. All at once a dark
+figure dashed from the trees and made a spring from a high rock,
+hoping, seemingly, to land in the boat. Instead, there was the sound
+of a heavy fall and then a piteous groan.
+
+Whoever it was had jumped for the boat, had missed it and fallen on
+the rocks. Not caring whether Masterson and his cronies saw them or
+not, the boys raced along the beach. From the groans of the injured
+person they knew that he was badly, possibly mortally, hurt.
+
+In a few minutes they reached his side.
+
+"It's the wild man!" cried Jack, as they gazed at a hairy,
+wild-looking man who lay stretched out, breathing heavily, on the
+rocks where he had fallen. His only clothing was a pair of tattered
+canvas trousers and a ragged shirt.
+
+"Poor old Foxy. He's done for at last, is Foxy, for his sins," groaned
+the man in an insane voice. "He suffered terrible for his crimes, has
+Foxy, but it's all over now."
+
+"Foxy!" exclaimed Jack. "That's the man that came down the river with
+Blue Nose Sanchez. The man who stayed in the boat."
+
+"He must have landed here and then gone crazy from privation," said
+Jack. "I can't find that any bones are broken," he said after a brief
+examination. "Suppose we carry him back to camp?"
+
+"I wonder where that Masterson outfit has got to?" said Tom, as they
+picked up the wasted form of Foxy, who was raving and moaning by
+turns.
+
+"I don't know. They are in a fine predicament now. They've got no food
+and no boat They're marooned on this island."
+
+"I suppose we'll have to help them out," said Tom.
+
+"I guess so, though they don't deserve it."
+
+"I lost that boat," moaned Foxy. "I could have got away in it. Poor
+old Foxy. It's tough on Foxy," and he began to weep.
+
+The professor found that the man had not suffered any broken bones
+but the fall had bruised and sprained him and he was helpless. From
+scattered bits of his ravings they learned what he had endured on the
+island and how, when the black sand began to burn him, he had had to
+give up working on it. Then his boat had drifted away and since then
+he had lived the life of a wild man, setting snares for rabbits and
+partridges, and eating them raw, tearing them with his clawlike
+fingers.
+
+Early the next day the expected happened. Chastened, and with burned
+and swollen hands and feet, Masterson and his cronies came into the
+boys' camp at breakfast time. They looked crestfallen and sheepish,
+but the boys did not want to make them feel any worse than they did,
+so they spared them questions at first.
+
+But when Masterson begged them to get them out of their predicament
+and take them back to Yuma, Jack felt that it was time to put them
+through a cross examination.
+
+"You followed us here to try to cut out some ground from under our
+feet, Masterson," he said, "and you know you told me in Nestorville
+you wanted to get even with me."
+
+"Don't rub it in, Chadwick," said the humbled Masterson. "I'll do
+anything you say if you'll only get us out of this terrible place. I
+can hardly walk, and my hands feel as if they'd been burned in a
+fire."
+
+"How did you know our destination?" asked Tom. Masterson made a full
+confession and at the end begged forgiveness.
+
+"This ought to be a good lesson to you to mind your own affairs," said
+Jack as he concluded.
+
+"I know a man who made a big fortune just minding his business," said
+Dick. "For my part," he went on, "I'll forgive you, but I want you to
+sign a paper promising not to publish anything about this expedition."
+
+"I will--oh, I will," said Masterson. And then he wrote as Dick
+dictated. The boys witnessed and signed the paper.
+
+"And now you'd better eat breakfast," said Jack.
+
+
+Three days later, the Wondership made two trips to Yuma. On the first
+she took the original party with the addition of the insane Foxy, who
+was placed in an asylum. He never recovered his reason but died in the
+institution. Also, there was carried a part of the leaden carboys
+which they had filled.
+
+Masterson and his cronies had been left behind on the island to pack
+up the camping equipment and thus make themselves useful. Zeb went to
+the U.S. Assay Office and formally filed their claim to the island and
+its riches. In the meantime, the professor took charge of Foxy and
+turned him over to the authorities.
+
+As for the boys, they sailed back to Rattlesnake Island, after sending
+a telegram to Mr. Chadwick. It was brief.
+
+"We win," was all it said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE HOMECOMING.
+
+
+The next day Masterson and his companions, very much subdued, boarded
+the Wondership as passengers. All of them were still suffering
+painfully from the effects of the burns, their only reward from their
+ill-advised raid on the black barren.
+
+"Boys," asked Masterson, "can't you take our camping equipment along?
+It's a shame to have it rot here."
+
+"All right," said Jack. "I think we may be able to sell it for you.
+Come on, we'll get to work now!"
+
+"You're not such a bad chap," said Eph when he heard Jack agree to
+Masterson's suggestion.
+
+"He's the finest chap on earth!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+"That he is," added Dick Donovan.
+
+"He is a model young man," declared Professor Jenks, overhearing
+Tom's last remark.
+
+Jack flushed with pleasure and embarrassment. It was very gratifying
+to know that his friends thought highly of him, but at the same time
+he wished they would not give him that uneasy feeling with their
+sincere compliments. So he hurried away, asking the others to follow
+him toward getting together Masterson's outfit.
+
+While the dumpy little geologist went once more to search for strange
+specimens, the boys readily set to work and in a very short time the
+camping equipment was placed on board the Wondership.
+
+When the boys arrived at Yuma, Masterson found no difficulty in
+selling the camping outfit to old man McGee, who decided to make one
+more try to find the Three Buttes.
+
+"Don't you think you're too old, and that the gold, after all, may not
+be there?" Tom asked the eccentric miner.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed McGee indignantly. "As I tole you afore, it
+stands ter reason thar's gold out thar, and 'at it war'ent up to
+Peg-leg Smith nor'n to Guv'nor Downey, nor'n to McGuire, nor'n to Dr.
+De Courcy, nor'n to any of 'em to find the Buttes, but as I says
+afore, I says ag'in--'at ther good Lord never made nuthin' thet wasn't
+of some use. Very well, then, the desert is good fer nuthin' else but
+mineral wealth, and Providence made it so plagued hard ter git at so
+'at all of us couldn't git rich at once. I've been arter the Buttes
+all me life, and _this_ wack I'm goin' to land it rich!"
+
+The fanatical old prospector, chuckling gleefully and sucking his
+pipe, ambled away while Tom looked after him, shaking his head
+sympathetically.
+
+"Look out! Look out!" someone shouted in Tom's ear. "There's a beauty,
+a wonder!"
+
+Tom, startled, whirled about to see the professor, gazing intently at
+a small rock upon which one of Tom's heels was resting. The professor
+violently pushed him aside, out came his little hammer, and in a
+moment the new specimen was in his bag. Then, the man of science,
+without looking up to see whom he had spoken to, pounced on another
+stone.
+
+Tom could not help laughing outright at the professor's queer ways and
+deep concentration on his pet hobby.
+
+"What a funny world this is!" remarked Tom, still amused. "Here is a
+man forever after rocks, rocks, and there goes a miner set upon
+becoming rich and discovering some imaginary mine."
+
+He saw Jack waving to him from the veranda of the hotel.
+
+"Listen, Tom," said his chum when they stood side by side, "I was
+thinking that it would be a splendid idea to send the Wondership to
+New York, and that from there we travel to Nestorville, _via_ the air
+route."
+
+"Great!" cried Tom, delighted. "But say, are we to take Masterson
+along?"
+
+"Of course not," replied Jack. "He can go back to Boston on the
+train."
+
+"Good for you!" declared Tom, slapping his chum on the back.
+
+"But I haven't told you my main idea yet," said Jack, smiling,
+
+"What is that?" asked the other wonderingly.
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+"No," Tom began to say, and then the roguish twinkle in Jack's eyes
+gave him a sudden inspiration. "You don't mean to use the Z.2.X. to
+send messages with while we fly nearer and nearer to our old home
+town?"
+
+"That is exactly what I wish to do," said Jack quietly.
+
+"Whoop! It's great!" cried Tom, throwing his hat in the air; and as he
+saw Dick coming toward them, he fairly pounced on the astonished
+reporter with the news.
+
+"Flamjam flapcakes of Florida!" gasped Dick.
+
+And so it was arranged. A few days later our party boarded a train for
+the East. Jack, Tom, Dick and Professor Jenks arrived at New York.
+
+(They had left Zeb behind to attend to the work in the barren
+fields.)
+
+The Wondership, as on the previous occasion, was quietly but quickly
+assembled, and made ready to take its homeward flight. They had chosen
+a spot on Manhattan island still very meagerly developed, and so were
+not at all troubled by curious onlookers. Jack, to whom his father had
+explained in detail the use of Z.2.X.--or Coloradite, as they had
+decided to call it--busied himself almost exclusively with the radio
+telephone apparatus. When all was ready, he sent his father the
+following telegram:
+
+"Expect message, using Coloradite from New York."
+
+The next morning they ascended. Round and round the Wondership
+circled, a golden speck against the blue sky. In a quarter of an hour
+the great metropolis seemed nothing but a giant beehive, with millions
+of busy workers ever hurrying in hundreds of different directions. The
+cars and automobiles were only like giant bees, moving somewhat
+swifter than those on what looked like fine threads of cotton or wool.
+
+"What a small place New York is after all," observed the professor.
+
+"It is larger than Boston," said Tom slyly,
+
+"Perhaps," admitted the man of science haughtily, "but not as learned
+or stately--no city can take its culture away from Boston."
+
+Jack smiled, and in order to change the conversation, asked Tom, "How
+high now?"
+
+"About fifteen hundred feet," guessed Tom.
+
+"Wrong," said Jack, glancing at the barograph on the dashboard in
+front of him. "We have reached two thousand eight hundred feet."
+
+"I must be asleep," said Tom, frowning. "Shall I connect the
+alternator?"
+
+Jack nodded and prepared to send greetings to his father, hundreds of
+miles away. They were out in the country now. As the Wondership glided
+through the air, the professor, in viewing the villages, farms, green
+pastures, and stretches of woodland, regretfully shook his head as the
+thought occurred to him that he was missing many a precious stone. He
+looked over to Jack with the idea of suggesting a descent, but he saw
+the boy inventor patiently adjusting the tuning knob, and waited,
+realizing how anxious Jack was to test the Coloradite.
+
+The little professor, extremely interested, saw Jack place his lips to
+the receiver, and for the second time in his life, send out the
+distinct call:
+
+"Hullo, High Towers!"
+
+Many minutes passed without an answer. Jack's face became grave. Was
+part of the machinery not properly adjusted? He went over the
+instrument very carefully. In so far as he could see, everything was
+just as it should be. Then a thought came that made him dizzy--was it
+possible that the Coloradite was not suited for the work, that Mr.
+Chadwick had been misinformed?
+
+"What's up?" inquired Tom, glancing up from his engines.
+
+"By the ghost of Guzzlewits!" gasped Dick. "Don't say it won't work,
+Jack!"
+
+The professor, ordinarily cool and very calculating, was strangely
+stirred. He watched the young inventor's face. Did it mean failure?
+
+"I don't know," said Jack at last with forced calmness. "I will try
+again."
+
+Once more Jack, oppressed by a vague fear, sent out the words:
+
+"Hullo, High Towers!"
+
+The reply came with startling swiftness, relieving the party from the
+mental strain. In one voice--the professor included--they yelled,
+
+"Hurrah!"
+
+"Congratulations!" came Mr. Chadwick's voice in return.
+
+"Why the delay?" asked Jack, smiling with
+
+"A small lever snapped. It required a few minutes to repair it. How
+far from New York are you now?"
+
+"About forty miles."
+
+"Good! Try to land here before sunset."
+
+"Why?" asked Jack.
+
+"Nestorville has a little surprise for you!" replied Mr. Chadwick, and
+Jack heard him chuckle.
+
+"Good for Mr. Chadwick!" cried Dick in glee, for Jack had so arranged
+the instrument that all of them in the Wondership could hear Mr.
+Chadwick's voice.
+
+Then followed a long conversation between father and son. Mr. Chadwick
+had almost completely recovered his health, and was again working over
+new experiments. Dick insisted that he be permitted to tell the story
+of their adventures on the island of the Coloradite Treasure.
+
+"You won't tell it right," he declared to Jack, and insisted so
+strenuously that the boy inventor had to let him speak to Mr.
+Chadwick.
+
+Dick set his choicest language agoing, and his vivid description of
+Jack's part in every incident was embellished by the most flowery
+adjectives in his vocabulary. Jack had to listen, and grin.
+
+By the time his long story was done, Nestorville was sighted. As soon
+as the people saw the Wondership, pandemonium broke loose. Not only
+Nestorville, but officials and crowds from the neighboring towns had
+poured in, and the reception the boys and the professor received
+lingered with them for many, many years.
+
+Later, as time went on, Mr. Chadwick's fortune was completely
+rehabilitated. Professor Jenks no longer was so eager to search for
+rocks, and while doing so get into all sorts of difficulties. He lived
+more at home, becoming at last, as his spinster sister declared, "a
+man with the proper spirit to make an ideal husband." Of course, the
+professor had received a very substantial sum of money from the boys.
+
+Jack and Tom soon found themselves wealthy, and often in fancy trace
+the days back to that afternoon when they found the sturdy miner lying
+on the roadside, having been knocked unconscious by Masterson's
+careless driving of his automobile.
+
+Zeb, continued to take charge of the work on Rattlesnake Island, to
+which the boys never returned. For a long time the supply from the
+black barren appeared to be inexhaustible. Suddenly, however, it
+ceased, and no more was dug. But what had been mined had been more
+than sufficient to make all prosperous.
+
+Dick, with his share of the proceeds, which the boys insisted that he
+accept, bought the _Nestorville Bugle_. From the very start, he made
+it a live, progressive paper. Sometimes, when the now busy editor had
+a spare hour, he invariably visited his two friends, and the
+three--sometimes, too, the little professor joined them
+unexpectedly--recounted old-time stories.
+
+But the boys were not made lazy by wealth and fame. To this very day,
+Jack and Tom, with Mr. Chadwick's aid, are devising many inventions
+calculated to benefit mankind. Possibly, at some future time, we shall
+hear something more about these, but for the present let us take our
+leave and say good-by.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone
+by Richard Bonner
+
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