CHAPTER XXX
THE BUTTERFLIES—CONCLUSION

“Well of all the queer actions!” exclaimed Jerry as he reached the spot where the alligator was stretched out dead. “I think Noddy must be crazy!”

They discussed the matter at some length and decided they had better tell the professor about it. They found the scientist tired out with his long and unsuccessful search for the rare butterfly.

“Maybe Noddy’s troubles have sent him temporarily out of his mind,” said Mr. Snodgrass. “I think it is our duty to do what we can for him, even if he has, in the past, acted as the enemy of you boys. We’ll go see him in the morning.”

They started off early the next day for Noddy’s camp. As they approached they saw the youth standing in the same place he had occupied the previous day.

“Hey, Noddy!” called Jerry when still some distance away from him.

“The wind is blowing the wrong way. He can’t hear you,” remarked Mr. Snodgrass. “Try again.”

“Noddy!” called Jerry. Still Noddy did not turn his head. Then all three boys united in a chorus of shouts. The Cresville bully gave no indication of having heard them.

“He’s deaf!” exclaimed the professor, and this view of the matter was confirmed a moment later when Ned, having touched Noddy on the shoulder, was confronted by a very much surprised youth. Jerry, Bob and Mr. Snodgrass joined Ned at Noddy’s side. The latter looking in wonderment from one to the other, took out a piece of paper and a pencil and, handing them to Jerry, said:

“I am totally deaf. I ate some queer kind of red berries and I’ve lost my hearing. You’ll have to write out your questions for me.”

“What are you doing here?” wrote Jerry.

“I’m camping here until I have that dispute over the cocoanut grove settled,” Noddy replied with something of his old manner. “I’ve got a colored man staying with me. When I found I was deaf I sent him off to the village for some medicine. He hasn’t come back and I guess he ran away with my money. I was watching for him to come on a path through the swamp yesterday when that alligator got after me. I couldn’t hear you when you yelled at me, but I felt the ground tremble when the alligator threshed around after you shot it. I was so frightened that I ran away.”

The professor, who was impressed by Noddy’s plight, urged him to accompany the boys back north. The three chums were willing to let by-gones be by-gones, and aid their former enemy, who was glad enough to accept help. His money was all gone and his food supplies running low. What he would have done had not the boys discovered him would be hard to say.

Noddy’s tent was taken down and he was brought to the other camp. There, made miserable by his deafness and his failure to secure a cocoanut grove, he sat apart, refusing to talk.

That evening, when the three chums were beginning to wonder if Mr. Snodgrass had not become lost in the swamp, they heard a shouting along the path that led through the morass.

“That sounds like him,” said Bob.

“It is!” exclaimed Ned a moment later as the professor came into view. He was fairly leaping up and down, holding something in his hands.

“Did a snake bite you?” inquired Jerry anxiously.

“No! I’ve got three of the butterflies! I caught them in the swamp a few minutes ago!” cried the delighted professor, and, hurrying up to the boys he showed in a little glass-sided box, the beautiful insects. The bodies were pink, while the large wings were of mingled blue and gold.

“I’ve got them!” repeated Mr. Snodgrass. “They were feeding on some beautiful flowers and first I thought they were blossoms, but their wings moved and I put the net over them. Now I’ll get the reward and a commission to travel all over the world for the museum. Oh, boys! This has been a most delightful trip!”

“With certain parts left out,” murmured Jerry, and Bob agreed with him.

“We’ll start back to-morrow,” went on the scientist. “I want to get these butterflies to the museum as soon as possible.”

They broke camp the next morning. Noddy, sullen and unhappy, accompanied them. Now that his mind was at peace from having secured his prize, the professor began to study Noddy’s case. He learned what the red berries were, and by looking in some of his scientific books discovered a remedy. This he administered the unfortunate youth who, in a few days, had his hearing completely restored.

“We’d better give him the message now,” said Jerry one afternoon, and, as communication was now easier Noddy was told of being wanted as a witness in the lighthouse matter. He said nothing on hearing this, but showed by his manner that he was alarmed.

“I don’t believe he’ll answer that summons,” ventured Jerry, and he was right. The next morning Noddy’s bunk in the Dartaway was vacant. He had slipped away in the night. However, the chums did not worry about him as they were near Kissimmee City and they thought Noddy could take care of himself, now that his hearing was restored.

Mr. Seabury was found at the hotel adjoining the land Jerry’s mother owned. In response to a telegram from her son, Mrs. Hopkins authorized him to sell the land to Mr. Seabury, and it was disposed of for a goodly sum.

“You must stay at my hotel for a week or so,” said the gentleman to the boys. To this they agreed. Uriah Snodgrass, however, took the first train he could get for the north.

“Where are you going next?” asked Rose, of Jerry one day.

“We haven’t made up our minds,” answered Jerry. “Where are you going?”

“We three girls are probably going with papa to California. He thinks the climate there may do him good.”

“I’d like to go to California myself,” put in Ned.

“Yes, and sail on the Pacific,” added Bob. “Say, that would be fine, eh?” he cried.

“We’d like to meet you out there,” said Nellie.

“It would be glorious!” cried Jerry. And how they did meet, and what strange adventures befell all, will be told in another volume, which I shall call, “The Motor Boys on the Pacific; Or, The Young Derelict Hunters.” It was an outing that none of them ever forgot.

“Well, there’s nothing to keep us down south any longer, I guess,” remarked Jerry one morning. “What do you say that we start back north? The professor has gone on with his butterflies, I’ve sold mother’s land, and we did Noddy a good turn.”

“Not to mention that we had more adventures than we counted on,” said Bob.

“And met some nice girls,” added Ned, with a sigh, for Ned had rather a soft spot in his heart for all young ladies.

“Then let’s arrange to go home,” urged Jerry, and they did.

So here, for a time, we will take leave of the motor boys. That they were destined to take part in many more incidents seems very probable, for they were boys who did not hesitate to undertake anything that offered a spice of novelty, nor were they deterred by a little flavoring of danger.

THE END.

Printed in U. S. A.