Sprockets Read Online Free PDF

limpid black eyes, a pair of very big pearl-handled pistols in his belt, and a pair of very expensive cameras slung over his shoulders.
    â€œBarnabas!” he roared in English. “Welcome! What happened? Where is the helicopter?”
    â€œWrecked, José,” the doctor said grimly. “How far away is the saucer?”
    â€œWithout the helicopter, we must journey maybe a night and a day. And we must start at once, pronto. Our luck, she is very bad! That no good hombre —”
    â€œProfessor Katz?”
    â€œ Sí, sí ! That no-good Prof. Vladimir Katz! He is in Mexico. My scouts, they see him. He is climbing the mountain this moment to find that saucer. Come queek! There is no time to waste! I am all ready to go with pistols and cameras loaded.”

5
    He Meets Professor Katz
    There was no time at all to waste if they would reach the purple saucer before Prof. Vladimir Katz got to it. According to Don José’s scouts, the purple saucer had fallen somewhere in a high valley in the mountains beyond the ranch. Prof. Vladimir Katz and his men had been seen struggling up a narrow mountain trail only an hour ago.
    â€œBut I know a shorter trail,” said Don José. “We will take horses and get ahead of them to the high pass. Then we will leave the horses and go on the feet. The way, she is very deeficult.”
    Don José bellowed orders. Men ran. Horses were brought and saddled, and saddlebags packed.
    Sprockets tried valiantly to mount one of the horses, but even with Jim helping, he simply could not manage it.
    â€œThe leetle mechanical one,” said Don José, “ha, he is not built right for the horse.”
    â€œThen we’d better leave him behind,” said the doctor. “We’ve had enough headaches with him already.”
    â€œOh, please, Dad,” Jim begged. “There must be some way he can go. We’ll need Sprockets.”
    â€œAh, maybe he fit the burro,” said Don José.
    A little burro was quickly brought and saddled. Now Sprockets had no difficulty, for he fitted the burro perfectly. However, he had to turn on his balance button so he would not fall off.
    They started away at a fast gallop for the distant trail, Don José Salazar leading with cameras and knapsack flopping over his shoulders. Behind him came Dr. Bailey, Jim, and two of Don José’s scouts, who looked like Mexican bandits—which they probably were when they were not scouting.
    Far behind them all rode Sprockets on the burro. Try as he would, the little burro could not keep up with the galloping horses. Minute by minute the horses got farther and farther ahead, till at last they vanished in the distance.
    Sprockets was not worried. Easily he followed their hoofprints until dark. Then he turned on his radar vision and rode bravely on through the night. But up on the wild slope of the mountain, with huge rocks as big as houses everywhere around him, his radar vision did not help at all. He tried his night vision button, but that did not help either, because the horses’ hoofs had left no print on the hard rocks. So there was nothing he could do but make use of the very special button that controlled his ultraviolet perceptors.
    Now, his ultraviolet perceptor button was so very special that Sprockets was not supposed to touch it except in an ultraspecial emergency, and then for only a few seconds at a time. He did not know exactly what would happen, but he resolved to take no chances. He stopped the burro, clung tightly to the saddle with one hand, and quickly turned on the button with the other.
    Instantly he shone all over with a strange violet fire. Violet fires danced about his head and shot in blazing streaks from his eyes. He looked so much like a hot hobgoblin that the sight of him frightened a curious mountain lion almost out of its wits. Even the patient little burro was frightened for a moment, and Sprockets might have been thrown from the