Chapter XXX Homeward Bound
Steering to one side, to avoid running into the mass of men, soldiers and kidnappers that seemed to be mixed up in inextricable confusion, Jerry sent his machine after Noddy’s, which was speeding away.
“Shall I try a shot at the tires?” asked Ned, fingering his revolver.
“No; you might hit Bob,” replied Jerry. “I’ll catch him.”
The battle was now divided. On one side the soldiers and the Mexicans were fighting. On the other was the race between the two autos; a contest of machinery.
At first it seemed that Noddy would escape. But Jerry, throwing in the high-speed clutch, cut down the distance between his car and Noddy’s. A few minutes after the chase started it became evident that Jerry would win.
Vasco, seeing how matters were likely to go, had jumped into the car as Noddy started off. All this while poor Bob was bound, and the cloak was still about his head, so he could not tell what was going on. But he guessed it was some attempt to rescue him.
Nearer and nearer came Jerry’s auto. The front wheels overlapped the rear ones of Noddy’s machine.
“Stop, or I’ll fire!” cried the professor, suddenly, leveling a revolver at Noddy’s crowd. They paid no heed to him.
With a quick motion, Vasco leaned over the edge of the seat and fired three times in rapid succession at the tires of Jerry’s machine. He missed his aim, but Jerry saw the danger that threatened him. He increased his speed.
In another minute he had come up alongside of Noddy’s auto.
“Get ready to grab Bob!” Jerry yelled to Ned and the professor. “Then hold on tight!”
“I’ll pay you for this!” exclaimed Vasco, fiercely. He leaned over the edge of the car and made a vicious lunge at Jerry with a long knife. Jerry swerved his machine the least bit and avoided the blow.
The next instant the autos came together with a crash. The shock threw Vasco out, for he was already leaning more than half way over the side door, in an endeavor to strike at Jerry. The wheels of the heavy machine passed over his legs, making him a cripple for life.
Seeing how matters were likely to turn out, Noddy shut off the power and brought his machine to a stop. Ned and the professor took advantage of this to reach over and grab Bob.
“Now we haf rescue him!” exclaimed Maximina. “I knew we would haf found Bob!” and she laughed and cried by turns.
It did not take long to loosen the captive’s bonds. The suffocating shawl was taken from his head. Poor Bob was faint and white.
“We’ll soon fix him up!” cried the professor, cheerily. “Run to one side, Jerry.”
Leaving the discomfited Noddy and his chum, Jack Pender, Jerry steered off under a clump of trees, where, by the administrations of the professor, Bob was soon himself again.
Meanwhile, the battle between the brigands and the troops was waging furiously. Several had fallen on both sides, but the better-trained soldiers knew more about warfare, and slowly but surely they pressed their enemies back.
Then, when Vasco fell and was crushed by the auto, the men lost heart. They faltered, wavered and then turned and fled.
Dalsett endeavored to rally them. He caught hold of some of the brigands and urged them to stand against the charge of the soldiers. One of the kidnappers resented Dalsett’s interference. With a wild cry he plunged a knife into the former miner, and Dalsett fell, seriously wounded.
“They fly! They fly! Take after them!” cried the captain of the troopers. “At them, my brave men! Hew them down! Wipe them off the face of the earth!”
It was noticeable that as the tide turned in favor of the soldiers their leader became more bold. He rode hither and thither, waving his sword, but taking care not to get too far to the front.
At length, with a last volley, the brigands fled. The troopers took after them, killing several and wounding some. They chased them until the kidnappers came to the foothills, and, as this was a wild country, the troopers did not care to follow. So some of the brigands escaped. But the band was broken up and for many years thereafter no trouble was experienced with them.
Noddy had not started up his machine after Vasco had been knocked from it. The former bully seemed to be in a sort of daze, and he and Pender sat staring at the exciting scenes going on all about them.
When Bob had been made comfortable on a bed of blankets spread under the trees, Jerry thought of their former enemy.
“What had we better do about Noddy?” he asked of the professor. “There he sits in his machine. Shall we turn him over to the soldiers?”
“I don’t know but what it would be a good idea,” said the naturalist. “Just have an eye to him for a few minutes, anyhow. The captain will be here in a little while, and he’ll decide what to do. I suppose the law must take its course.”
Seeing that Bob was doing very well under the care of Maximina and the professor, Ned and Jerry ran their machine over to where Noddy was.
“Don’t give me up!” pleaded Nixon. “I didn’t mean to do any harm. It was all Dalsett and Vasco. See, here is your money-belt, Jerry. I never touched a cent of it.”
“So it was you who took it, eh?” spoke Ned.
“No—no—I didn’t steal it. Dalsett made me take it that night,” faltered Noddy. “But I never took any money out of it. I used my own. Please let me go!”
“You are a prisoner of the captain, not one of ours,” replied Jerry. “He’ll have to settle your case.”
At that instant the captain, who, with his men, had ridden to where Vasco was stretched out on the ground, called to Jerry and Ned. They turned the machine toward him.
The professor, too, came running over. The captain spoke some command to one of his men, who began a search of the clothing of the kidnapper leader.
“Ha! There is something!” exclaimed the captain, as his man hauled two money-belts out of Vasco’s pocket. “I wonder whom they belong to?”
“One’s mine!” cried Ned.
“And the other is Bob’s,” said Jerry. “I wonder if there is any money left in them?”
“Look,” said the captain, passing them over. The boys and the professor, who had translated the captain’s remarks as he had made them, looked over the articles. They found that about half the sum in each belt had been spent.
“Well, half a loaf is better than no bread,” remarked Jerry. “We ought to be thankful we’re alive, to say nothing of getting part of our cash back.”
“You all seem to have plenty of money; you are not like the poor Mexicans,” said the captain, with a sigh, looking at the professor, meaningly.
“That reminds me: I promised to reward you and your men if we were successful,” spoke the naturalist.
He distributed a good-sized sum among the soldiers, who seemed very pleased to get it. Their salaries under the government were small, and not always paid regularly, so that any addition was welcome.
“What’s that?” asked the captain, suddenly, as he shoved his share of the distribution in his pocket.
“It’s Noddy and Pender in their auto,” said Jerry. “They are going to escape.”
“Shall we fire at them?” asked the captain, eagerly.
“What’s the use?” asked Jerry. “Let them go. We would only have more bother if we tried to get them punished by law for their crimes. We have Bob back, we discovered the underground city, and what more do we want?”
“Nothing, excepting to get back home,” put in Ned. “I’ll be glad to see Cresville again.”
So no attempt was made to capture Noddy and his chum, and they sped off across-country in their machine, running at top speed, as if they feared pursuit. Bill Berry, slightly wounded, went with them.
“Is there anything more we can do for you?” asked the captain. “If there is not we will start back to the garrison, as it is growing late.”
The professor said he thought they could dispense with the services of the troops. So, amid a chorus of good-byes, the horsemen rode away.
“Well, here we are, all together once more,” observed the professor.
“And with an addition to our party,” put in Ned, pointing to Maximina.
“That’s so; we must get her back home next,” the professor said.
“First, give me something to eat and drink,” begged Bob. “I’m almost starved.”
It was so near night that the travelers decided to make a camp. Supper was soon ready, and after it had been disposed of, the boys made a small tent out of blankets for Maximina.
The next morning they started northward. Maximina had told them she had relatives in the City of Mexico, and they headed for that place. They reached it, without having any accidents, a week later, and left the girl who had befriended Bob with her friends.
“I wonder if we’ll have any more adventures?” said Ned, as, after a few days’ rest, they started from the City of Mexico toward home.
“Hard to say, but probably you boys will,” said the professor. “Boys are always having adventures. As for me, I am satisfied with those we had on this trip. We had the most excellent success. My name will be famous when the story of the underground city is told in four large volumes which I intend to issue.”
“I would think it might,” commented Ned. “Four books are enough to make any one famous.”
“Well, it will take some long letters to tell our folks of all that has happened to us,” put in Bob. Telegrams had already been sent, so that nobody at home might worry further.
“I’ll be glad enough to get back to the States,” said Jerry. “Mexico is not the best place in the world.”
“I suppose we’ll have more adventures before long,” was Ned’s comment, and he was right. What those adventures were will be told in the next volume of this series, to be called “The Motor Boys Across the Plains; or, The Hermit of Lost Lake.” Here we shall meet all of our young friends again, and also some of their enemies, and learn much concerning a most peculiar mystery.
The weather remained fine, and as the auto had been thoroughly repaired in the City of Mexico before leaving, rapid progress was made in the journey northward. They kept, as far as possible, to the best and most frequented roads, having no desire to meet any more brigands.
“Tell you what,” said Bob, one day, “automobiling is great, isn’t it?”
“Immense!” answered Ned.
“It’s the best sport going,” added Jerry. “I love this touring car of ours as I would love a brother.”
And then he put on a burst of speed that soon took them around a bend of the road and out of sight—and also out of my story.
The End