CHAPTER XXII
A DISAPPOINTED PROFESSOR
Wild and desolate indeed, was the scene upon which those in themotorship gazed as their craft sank into the valley on the CanadianBorder. Located in the midst of a vast mountain range, the great gashin the earth looked as if a giant had, with some titanic shovel,scooped out earth and rocks to make a vast bed for himself. The valley,located well up in the midst of the mountains, extended north and southfor many miles. In fact it lay directly across the Border, so thatabout half of it was in Canada and the other half in the United States.
The boys and their companions had noticed some of the boundary marksjust before they began their descent, and they could easily determinetheir position.
“Think you can make a landing, Jerry?” asked Jim Nestor, as he stoodbeside the tall lad in the pilot house. “It’s pretty rough down there.”
“Oh, I can land all right,” asserted Jerry. “I can manipulate the_Comet_ to make her go almost anywhere, and we don’t need a very largesmooth place to anchor her. But it sure is all mixed up.”
“I should say so!” exclaimed Ned.
“Looks as if some one stood up on the tops of the mountains and threwbig rocks down here,” commented Bob, who had come from the kitchen,where supper was in course of preparation.
And indeed Bob’s description was as accurate as any. The floor of thelong, but narrow, valley was covered with great rocks and boulders,some of them of vari-colored sandstone, and others of hard, and almostblack, granite. Some were of odd shapes, and they differed in size fromthose almost as large as a house, to mere rocks that a lad could havetossed.
“That happened when the landslide came down,” explained Mr. Brill. “Ifyou’d been here then you would have thought the earth was coming toan end. I never heard such a racket, and the way the rocks and earthtumbled down here was a caution. I just got out in time. If I hadn’t Imight be here yet--but not alive.”
From what little view the gold-seekers had of the valley in thegathering darkness it did seem almost impossible of ascent or descentby ordinary means. It was not that the sides were so steep--though theywere anything but of gentle slope--but the rugged walls, with here andthere sheer precipices, made them out of the question to scale.
“Nothing but a balloon could get down here,” said Mr. Brill. “A balloonor an airship. It was a good thing you thought of these boys, Jim, orwe’d never have had a chance for the gold. I don’t believe anyone elsecould get into this valley; or, if they could, they couldn’t get outagain.”
This was not exactly so, as they learned later. For when they had beenin the valley some time, and were prepared to leave, they discovered,away up on the Canadian side, a comparatively easy descent. But it wasso hidden, and in such an out-of-the-way place that only by the merestaccident was it located.
“We can’t do much gold seeking to-night,” said Jerry, as he guided theaircraft to a comparatively level spot where he intended to anchor her.“It’s getting darker every minute, and it doesn’t look very inviting togo traveling around among those rocks, not knowing what moment they maycome rolling down on you.”
“That’s right,” agreed the man who had hidden the gold. “We’ll waituntil morning. Anyhow, I don’t believe I’d be able to pick out thelandmarks by which I’ll have to be guided to the _cache_. I’ll needdaylight for that. You see, after I found out that I was being spiedupon, I made several bluffs at hiding the gold. That is, I pretended toput it in two or three different places. But it’s all hidden in onespot, and I’ll locate that to-morrow.”
“Then we’ll dig up the gold, and spend a few days hunting before we goback East,” said Ned.
“Maybe it won’t be as easy finding it as you think,” put in Bob.
“Oh, I think I can walk right to it, when we get near enough,” assertedthe miner; “but it’s several miles from here--more in the center of thevalley.”
“Well, there’s one comfort,” said Jim Nestor. “We won’t be troubled bythe Blackfeet to-night.”
“No, but we may be troubled by _cold_ feet!” exclaimed Ned, with achuckle. “It’s getting chilly. I guess we’ll have to start the furnaceto-night, Jerry.”
It was quite cold up among the mountains, even though they were almostat the bottom of a deep valley, and the tall young pilot closed thewindows of the airship.
“We can start the electric heaters,” he said, for the _Comet_ wasequipped with all the latest improvements in the way of comforts. “Bob,turn ’em on when you go back to finish supper.”
“That’s so! I forgot about that cake!” cried the stout lad, as he madea dash for the galley. “I left it in the oven, and it smells as if itwas burning!”
“Cake! He’s the limit!” cried Ned. “He’d make some kind of pastry, ordessert, if he had to use crackers and water, and we were eating ourlast meal. I never saw such a chap for grub!”
“Let him alone,” suggested Jerry, good-naturedly. “He means all right.”
“That looks like a good place to land,” suggested Jim Nestor, a littlelater, as the airship approached a spot comparatively free fromboulders.
“I’ll try it,” agreed Jerry, and a few minutes afterward the motorshipwas safely anchored, while night settled down over the mysteriousvalley.
Bob’s fear for the cake proved unfounded, and the dainty came to thesupper table, shortly afterward, in perfect condition. With the airshipclosed up, and the electric heaters going, the gold-seekers were verycomfortable.
They sat about after the meal, talking over what lay before them. Itseemed that they were almost at the end of their quest, though theyrealized that danger and uncertainty might beset them. ProfessorSnodgrass had about finished making notes of the specimens thusfar captured. Placing away his books and boxes, he put on his hat,stretched himself, and started for the door of the cabin.
“Where are you going?” asked Jerry.
“To look for those luminous snakes,” was the answer. “It is good anddark now, and I can see them well. Now that we are in the valley wherethey exist I must lose no time in securing some specimens.”
“I wish you’d wait until morning,” requested the tall lad. “We don’tknow anything of this valley, and, if you go prospecting around it inthe dark, something may happen. Besides, there may be wild beasts here.”
“All the better!” exclaimed the professor. “I can get more specimens!”
Jerry was unable to persuade Uriah Snodgrass to stay in, but, as acompromise, the scientist consented to take Harvey Brill and Ned withhim, while the others made everything snug for the night.
But Mr. Snodgrass was doomed to disappointment, for though he and theothers searched all around, within a radius of half a mile of theaircraft, no luminous snakes were discovered.
“Do you think they can all have vanished?” asked Mr. Snodgrass of theminer.
“Oh, no, for there were lots of them that I saw. But I can’t just sayit was here that I noticed them. It may have been farther up or downthe valley. Besides, I wasn’t paying much attention to such critters.I wanted to fool the grub-stakers who were on my trail, and hide mygold.”
“Oh, what was gold compared to the luminous snakes?” demanded thescientist. “If I had had your chance I would never have let it slip.Think of being able to present a luminous snake to a museum!”
“I’d rather get my sixty nuggets,” murmured the miner as, with thedisappointed professor, he returned to the aircraft.