CHAPTER XXX
NODDY NIXON DEFEATED—CONCLUSION

Jerry felt a sensation of relief. Help had appeared at a most-needed time. An instant after he had spoken Bob raised his rifle and began to pump bullets into the mass of Indians. His example was followed by Sledge Hammer Tod and Mr. Bell.

Such an unexpected fire threw the savages into a panic. They fell back, their leaders crying in vain to make the warriors keep to the attack.

“Now’s our chance!” cried Jerry, looking back, and seeing the confusion in the ranks of their enemies. “The airship is just ahead!”

With a final rush they gained it. The old men and women were helped into the cabin.

“Cast off!” cried Jerry to Ned and Bob, who were on the alert for orders. The tall lad rushed to the pilot house and started the gas machine. The Comet was tugging and straining at the holding ropes.

“We’ll stand off the savages, Tod and I!” yelled Nestor. “You move the ship, Jerry!”

There was need of defense, for the savages had again rushed forward, and now surrounded the airship. They could be plainly seen, as the scores of electric lamps in the craft had been turned on. The two miners began a fusillade against their enemies, Mr. Bell and the professor joining in.

The gas was rushing into the big bag, and, in a few minutes it was sufficiently filled. Jerry started the big propellers, and with a rush the airship left the valleys, soaring upward toward the clouds.

“We’re safe!” cried Jerry a little later, when he noted that the airship was a thousand feet high. “Now which way shall we go?”

“Anywhere, so long as it is away from this valley,” replied Mr. Deering.

Jerry headed the craft back over the route they had come, and then, setting the automatic steering apparatus, he and the others gave their attention to the captives. Fortunately none of them was hurt, though all were well-nigh exhausted by the race for life. Hot coffee which Bob, true to his promise, had ready, revived them. Then the comparatively slight injuries the rescuers had received were attended to, and they exchanged experiences. Bob, and the others in the airship, had been waiting and listening, and, hearing firing, had rushed out in the nick of time.

The rescuers divested themselves of their disguises, which were saved as souvenirs of the trip.

When matters had somewhat quieted down, Mr. Deering and several of the men prisoners came forward with sacks that seemed quite heavy. They laid them on the cabin table.

“What are these?” asked Jerry.

“The gold nuggets,” was the answer. “We held on to them during our flight. Now they are yours.”

But Jerry and his chums and friends would not take the gold. They insisted that the men and women who had been saved would need the money to provide the necessaries of life, now that they were to go back to civilization.

This brought up the subject of what was to be their future, and, though Mr. Bell offered to provide for the refugees, they decided they would all rather go to some small town, and there begin life over again.

“Then Rockyford is just the place for you,” suggested Jim Nestor. “You can live there, as well as anywhere else, it’s not far from here, and close to the diggings, so I can sort of keep an eye on you, in case these Indians try to recapture you,” and he chuckled at the idea of the severely punished redmen daring to venture out of their valley. “Tod and I will soon be back at the mine,” went on Nestor.

“That is, if Noddy Nixon hasn’t gotten possession,” remarked Jerry. “I’ve been apprehensive ever since we came away.”

“Oh, we’ll get the best of him yet,” ventured Bob.

After Mr. Deering and his companions had talked the matter over among themselves, they decided to adopt the advice of Jim Nestor, and make their homes in Rockyford. Professor Snodgrass wanted his cousin to come East with him, and aid science in searching for rare bugs.

“No, thank you,” said Mr. Deering. “I’ve seen all I want to of bugs and flying lizards, since I’ve been among the Indians. I wouldn’t even catch a fly now, science or no science.”

The professor sighed, but made no further suggestions. The refugees and their rescuers traveled all that night in the airship, and, though the boys managed to get some sleep, when they were not on watch, the recent captives found so many novelties to take their attention, and were so fraught with wonder at the idea of sailing through the air, that they did not slumber much.

Three days later, flying under fair skies, and before favorable winds, the travelers of the air sighted the mountains that marked the location of Rockyford, and the boys’ gold mine.

“We’ll be there in about an hour,” announced Jerry, but he did not reckon on an accident that happened about ten minutes later. One of the auxiliary planes of the motor ship broke, and it was decided to descend to repair it. The work did not take long, however, and, while it was going on, Mr. Deering and his friends left the ship, and strolled across the grassy plain, for they were tired of their rather cramped quarters. Professor Snodgrass, naturally, could not miss a chance like that, to hunt for specimens, and he was soon making a careful examination of the ground, and every tree and shrub that he approached. He caught several bugs and insects, all of which were very valuable, he said, but the boys were too anxious to get on to their mine, and see what was the outcome of the claim Noddy had made, to pay much attention to the scientist.

At last the repairs were completed, the party re-entered the ship, Professor Snodgrass, as usual, being last, and then the journey was resumed.

“Hurrah! There’s Mike Malone on guard!” cried Ned, when, after coming within sight of the mine, he had peered through a telescope.

“Is he?” cried Bob. “Then, if he’s in possession, the lawsuit isn’t settled yet. There is some doubt about it, and we have a chance to hold our mine.”

“Unless Mr. Malone is there in the interests of Noddy and his gang,” put in Jerry.

“Not much!” exclaimed Jim Nestor. “You couldn’t hire Mike to work for that bully. You’ll find that the case isn’t settled yet.”

By this time they were within sight of the deputy sheriff, who had sprung to his feet, when he first had a glimpse of the airship, and was now wildly swinging his hat.

A safe landing was made, and, even before they had seen to the disembarkation of their refugee passengers, Jerry, Ned and Bob made a rush for the deputy, who was broadly smiling.

“Well, how about it?” panted Jerry.

“How about what?” inquired Malone, with provoking slowness.

“The mine—our mine—is it still ours?” spluttered Bob.

“It sure is,” was the hearty response of the deputy sheriff. “Noddy Nixon and his gang have been cleaned out, bag and baggage, by the Supreme Court. Their case came up day before yesterday, and their lawyer made a big talk. They went on the stand—Noddy and some of his cronies did—but shucks! what they said didn’t amount to a hill of beans. Then the lawyer you folks had hired made a little talk, and it was all over but the shoutin’. The court said Noddy had no claim and decided in your favor, and instructed me to remain in possession until you came, and then to turn the mine over to you.

“Which,” went on Malone, “I do, to wit, in manner following, that is to say, accordin’ to the statutes in such cases made an’ provided, all in due formality with the laws of the United States in general and Arizona in particular, an’ blamed glad I am to get rid of this job, only you needn’t tell the judge I said so,” and, with an air of relief, the official turned over to Jim Nestor papers confirming the right of the boys and their friends to the gold mine.

“Hurrah! That’s the stuff!” cried Bob, throwing his hat up in the air, and trying to catch it, but failing, and stumbling down in a heap over a pile of slag.

“Did Noddy make any fuss?” asked Jerry.

“He tried to,” was the grim answer of the deputy. “He come out here, and tried to sass me, but I ordered him off.”

“Did he go?” Ned wanted to know.

“Well, I guess he did,” was the quick reply. “He and those fellows with him. Noddy allowed as how he was going to get even with you chaps, though, sometime or other.”

“Let him try,” remarked Jerry.

Noddy did try, and with what results, and what befell the motor boys in another trip they made in their airship, will be told of in the next volume of this series, to be called “The Motor Boys Over the Ocean; Or, A Marvelous Rescue in Mid-Air.”

After a short rest at the mine, and when the last of the legal formalities regarding the mine had been complied with, the Comet was again put in motion, sent up into the air, and the trip to Rockyford made.

There the refugees were made comfortable in a hotel, until they could obtain permanent homes. This they soon did, as the nuggets they had managed to bring away with them proved to be very valuable.

As for our heroes, they found that the new gold vein that was discovered in their mine, was richer even than Jim Nestor and his miners had dared to hope. For a time there was some apprehension lest Noddy Nixon and his cronies return to do some mischief, but they seemed to have left that part of the country. Professor Snodgrass captured many more specimens, but none that gave him as much pleasure as did the flying lizard, which he mounted in a life-like attitude.

Nothing more was ever heard of the Indians of Lost Valley, for no one cared to make a trip to that perilous place, and it was thought that the savages were severely punished in the battle against the whites. Mr. Bell soon located his son, and had a thrilling story to tell him of the search and rescue.

The motor boys returned East, after a month spent in the vicinity of their mine, during which time they made frequent trips in the Comet. They were well satisfied with their trip across the Rockies, but were fully determined to seek other adventures in the near future, and it may be said that they had little difficulty in finding them.

THE END

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