The Hunniwell boys and the platinum mystery
“You said it,” Bill told him. “She’s a fine girl and I don’t care who
knows it.”
“She’d be prettier if she had a bit more nose,” Gordon suggested.
“What’s the matter with her nose?” Bill demanded.
“Nothing, what there is of it,” Gordon laughed.
“Well, I guess it suits her all right.”
“And somebody else as well,” Gordon again laughed.
“Looks to me as though it was going to rain,” Rogers changed the
conversation. He did not realize how dear the two boys were to each
other and sometimes feared lest real offense might be given when they
were kidding.
“Does look a bit thick off there,” Bill agreed. “Hope it holds off till
we land.”
“It’s going to take more than rain to keep me away from that hole,”
Gordon told them. “Believe me, I’m anxious to find out if my hunch is in
good working order.”
“You didn’t say you had a hunch. I thought it was just an idea,” Bill
told him.
“Is there any difference?” Rogers wanted to know.
“Sure there is,” Gordon told him. “A hunch is an idea with a college
education.”
“Then I hope this one of yours went to a good college,” Rogers laughed.
“You’ll have to wait a bit after we get there, rain or no rain,” Bill
said a few minutes later. “It’ll be just about high tide when we land.”
“That old tide again,” Gordon groaned.
“Which waits for no man,” Rogers reminded him.
“It’s going to rain all right,” Bill declared just then as a drop of
water struck the wind shield in front of him.
“Just a shower, I reckon,” Rogers told him.
But a few minutes later the rain was coming down in torrents and the
visibility was so poor that they could see but a short distance ahead.
“Better slow her down or we’ll be going past without seeing it,” Gordon
cautioned.
“We’re only making a bit over thirty now,” Bill told him.
“Then the wind must be pretty strong,” Rogers suggested. “It seems to me
as though we were going pretty fast.”
“We aren’t nearly there yet,” Bill declared.
“Some shower, if you ask me,” Gordon declared.
But it turned out that Rogers was right. It was only a shower, and a few
minutes later the sun burst through the clouds and the rain stopped so
suddenly that Gordon declared someone must have turned off the spigot.
“Is that our island?” Gordon asked pointing straight ahead.
“Unless I got lost in the rain it is,” Bill told him.
“Well, I guess you didn’t because those are our cliffs all right.”
“And right over there is where our hopes are,” Rogers smiled pointing a
bit to the right.
“Tide’s in all right but I reckon it’s on the turn,” Gordon told them.
“Which means that we’ll have time to get some dinner,” Bill laughed.
“I sure do like that statement,” Gordon assured him.
A few minutes later the plane settled to the ground at their old camping
ground and they jumped out and at once began getting things in shape for
the meal.
“Doesn’t look as though there’d been anyone here,” Gordon announced as
he looked about.
“I guess there doesn’t anyone come here very often,” Bill told him.
“It isn’t a very inviting place to come to,” Rogers added.
It was nearly two o’clock when they started out for the hole in the
cliff and Gordon hurried them along so fast that Rogers was panting
heavily when they reached the spot.
“I’ll have to go into training if I’m going to follow you fellows about
much,” he declared.
“Quick, Bill, give me a jump up,” Gordon ordered and Bill hastened to
take his stand beneath the hole.
In an instant Gordon was on his shoulders and then the sand began to fly
as he brushed it out with both hands.
“Go easy there,” Bill gasped stepping back a pace and nearly upsetting
his burden. “I’m getting the most of that sand down the back of my neck.
Don’t brush it out so hard and then it’ll fall down straight.”
“Don’t be so particular,” Gordon called down, “There isn’t much more.
There, I told you so.”
“Found something?” Rogers asked eagerly.
“Looks like it. There’s a crack here in the floor that makes almost a
square, but I’ve got to have something besides my fingers to pry it
out.”
“How about the bar? I brought it along, you know.”
“Hand it up and I’ll give it a try but I don’t believe it will work.”
“Crack too small?” Bill asked.
“Afraid so,” Gordon told him as he reached for the bar which Rogers was
handing him.
It required several minutes for Gordon to work the end of the bar into
the crack, but he finally accomplished it and in another minute he
dropped a flat stone about a foot and a half long and a little more than
a foot wide to the ground.
“Get a bit nearer, Bill,” he called and a moment later added: “It’s here
all right, but I don’t know’s I can lift it out alone.”
“What is it?” Both Bill and Rogers asked the question in the same
breath.
“It’s a wooden box and it’s sure some heavy,” he told them panting as he
tugged with both hands. “Steady now, and don’t spill me if you can help
it. Here, Steve, get under it and I’ll ease it down to you.”
The box was in a fair state of preservation as they found upon
examination, although the cover was rotted a bit on one side.
“Just a minute,” Rogers cried as Gordon was about to use the bar in
prying off the top. “Do——do you suppose we’re going to find the platinum
in there?”
“Best way is to get it open and find out,” Bill told him.
“Go ahead.”
The cover flew off and three pairs of eyes peered eagerly at the
contents.
“I reckon we’ve found it,” Rogers said as he stooped and picked up a
small lump of what looked like a fragment of nickle.
“Is that platinum?” Gordon asked as he too picked up a piece.
“Well, I never saw any unrefined platinum,” Rogers told him. “And, of
course, I can’t be certain, but what else could it be? No one took all
that trouble to hide something that wasn’t pretty valuable.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Bill told him.
“Let’s get it back to camp and I’ll get my lab to working and we’ll soon
know what it is,” Rogers told them.
“We’ll take turns carrying it,” Bill proposed. “Help me get it up on my
shoulder and I’ll take the first whack.”
Changing the load at short intervals they made easy work of it and half
an hour later Rogers was busy getting his chemicals and apparatus ready.
“I’m not much of a chemist,” he told them, “But I studied up on this
thing and don’t believe I’ll have much trouble.”
“You better hadn’t,” Gordon warned him. “We don’t want to cart home a
lot of worthless stuff.”
“I’ll do the best I can. Believe me, I don’t want to get my hopes up
again and get fooled. Now here’s the nitric acid. We’ll pour some out in
this beaker and put a lump of the stuff in it and see if it has any
action on it. If it’s any common metal it will dissolve. Where’s that
little stove that uses that solid heat of yours? I want to warm the acid
to make sure.”
Gordon soon found the little stove and a moment later they were eagerly
watching the experiment.
“Not a sign of any action,” Gordon declared after five minutes had
passed.
“Which makes it look encouraging,” Rogers told him. “Now we’ll try some
hydrochloric acid.”
The result was the same with the latter acid and the hopes of all three
were at fever heat as they watched the experiment.
“Now we’ll try the aqua regia and see if that dissolves it,” Rogers told
them as he mixed the two acids.
“It should, shouldn’t it?” Bill asked.
“If it’s platinum, yes.”
How they all stared as he dropped a small lump into the mixture and how
they cheered a moment later as they saw it slowly grow smaller and
finally disappear.
“I guess that settles it,” Bill cried.
“Just a minute. There’s one more test to make to be sure,” Rogers told
him as he diluted the mixture with some water. “If it’s platinum this
solution of ammonium chloride, which I have in this bottle, will
precipitate it.”
Again they held their breath as he poured some of the solution into the
beaker, but their joy was unbounded as they saw the dark colored
precipitate thrown down and Rogers told them that it was the precious
metal beyond the shadow of a doubt.
“Now I reckon we can enjoy the flight home,” Gordon declared catching
his cap on the back of his head as it descended from the height to which
he had thrown it.
“It’s dead certain that I’m going to,” Rogers assured him. “Boys, this
means a lot to me.”
“And I reckon we can use our share,” Bill grinned.
“Well, I guess we’d better plan to spend the night here and get an early
start in the morning,” Rogers suggested.
“It doesn’t make so much difference when we start,” Bill told him.
“We’ll have to fly part way in the dark anyhow unless we hit full speed
about all the time and I don’t like to do that unless we have to. But we
ought to take a couple of hours or so and go over the plane and be sure
that everything is all right before we start so I’m in favor of doing as
you suggest. What do you say Gordon?”
“Suits me. We don’t want to have trouble with the motor on the way back,
that’s certain.”
“Then I’ll get the tents up while you two are doing the work on the
plane,” Rogers said.
“I’ll say it’s a lucky thing we did look it over,” Gordon declared an
hour later.
“Found something wrong?” Bill asked looking up from the commutator of
the elevator motor which he had been examining.
“Here’s a wire that’s all but broken and if it had given out while we
were in the air——well, we’d have had to come down, that’s all.”
“But this other motor would hold us up,” Bill told him.
“I forgot about that one for the minute, but this would have given out
before we had gone a hundred miles or I’m no mechanic. Looks to me as
though there must be too much vibration here. No wonder,” he added a
moment later. “This motor is all but loose.”
“I’ll say it is,” Bill agreed after a short examination. “It needs some
new bolts in there. Wonder if we’ve got any.”
“I’ll look and see.”
After a long search Gordon found the bolts and started in to replace
those which were worn. It took considerable time as they were hard to
get at and supper was ready by the time he had finished.
“Where are we going to hide that stuff?” Bill asked later as they were
sitting around the fire. “We don’t want to have it stolen now that we’ve
got it.”
“Who’s going to steal it?” Gordon demanded.
“I don’t suppose anyone is,” Bill told him. “But, just the same, we’re
going to hide it and, what’s more, we’re going to set a watch to-night.”
“That’s fool——”
“I think Bill’s right,” Rogers interrupted. “Of course,” he explained,
“there’s not much chance of anyone coming around here to-night, but it’s
possible, and that platinum is altogether too valuable to take the
slightest chance with.”
“I guess you’re right at that,” Gordon agreed. “It’s only for one night
anyhow.”
Before going to bed they packed everything which they did not need,
including the platinum, in the plane as they planned to be off by four
o’clock, and before nine o’clock Rogers and Bill were asleep leaving
Gordon to stand the first watch until eleven. It was a beautiful night
after the shower of the morning and the sky was studded with stars, and
a great sense of pleasure took possession of the boy as he sat with his
back to a large rock only a few feet from the plane.
“It’s all a bunch of foolishness sitting up here,” he told himself as he
glanced at his watch and saw that it was half past ten.
But at that moment he changed his mind. A slight sound off to his left
caught his ear and he quickly sprang to his feet every sense alert. For
a moment he stood perfectly still and listened. Then he heard it again.
It was only a faint sound as though someone were stepping on a loose
stone but it told him that some kind of an animal was near. There was no
moon and, in spite of the stars, he could see but a short distance. Then