They did not talk much, murmuring among themselves now and then, and little of what they said was intelligible2 to Tom. But he knew enough of the language to give them orders, the main one of which was:
"Hurry up!"
Now, having seen to it that the gang of which he was in temporary charge was busily engaged, Tom had a chance to look about him. The tunnel was not new to him. Much of his time in the past month had been spent in its black depths, illuminated3, more or less, by the string of incandescent4 lights.
"What I want to find," mused5 Tom, as he walked to and fro, "is the place where those Indians disappeared. For I'm positive they got away through some hole in this tunnel. They never came out the main entrance."
Tom held to this view in spite of the fact that nearly every one else believed the contrary—that the men had left by the tunnel mouth, near which Tom happened to be alone at the time.
Now, left to himself, with merely nominal6 duties, and so disguised that none of the workmen would know him for the trim young inventor who oversaw7 the preparing of the blast charges, Tom Swift walked to and fro, looking for some carefully hidden passage or shaft8 by means of which the men had got away.
"For it must be well hidden to have escaped observation so long," Tom decided9. "And it must be a natural shaft, or hole, for we are boring into native rock, and it isn't likely that these Indians ever tried to make a tunnel here. There must be some natural fissure10 communicating with the outside of the mountain, in a place where no one would see the men coming out."
But though Tom believed this it was another matter to demonstrate his belief. In the intervals11 of seeing that the natives properly loaded the dump cars, and removed as much of the debris12 as possible, Tom looked carefully along the walls and roof of the tunnel thus far excavated13.
There were cracks and fissures14, it is true, but they were all superficial ones, as Tom ascertained15 by poking16 a long pole up into them.
"No getting out that way," he said, as he met with failure after failure.
Once, while thus engaged, he saw Serato, the Indian foreman looking narrowly at him, and Serato said something in his own language which Tom could not understand. But just then along came Tim Sullivan, who, grasping the situation, exclaimed:
"Thot's all roight, now, Serri, me lad!" for thus he contracted the Indian's name. "Thot's a new helper I have, a broth17 of a bye, an' yez kin1 kape yer hands off him. He's takin' orders from me!"
"Um!" grunted18 the Indian. "Wha for he fish in tunnel roof?" for Tom's pole was one like those the Indians used when, on off days, they emulated19 Izaak Walton.
"Fishin' is it!" exclaimed Tim. "Begorra 'tis flyin' fish he's after I'm thinkin'. Lave him alone though, Serri! I'm his boss!"
"Um!" grunted the Indian again, as he moved off into the farther darkness.
"Be careful, Tom," whispered the Irishman, when the native had gone. "These black imps20 is mighty21 suspicious. Maybe thot fellah had a hand in th' disappearances22 hisself."
"Maybe," admitted Tom. "He may get a percentage on all new hands that are hired."
Tom kept on with his search, always hoping he might find some hidden means of getting out of the tunnel. But as the days went by, and he discovered nothing, he began to despair.
"The queer thing about it," mused Tom, "is what has become of the ten men. Even if they did find some secret means of leaving, what has become of them? They couldn't completely disappear, and they have families and relatives that would make some sort of fuss if they were out of sight completely this long. I wonder if any inquiries23 have been made about them?"
When Tom came off duty he asked the Titus brothers whether or not any of the relatives of the missing men had come to seek news about them. None had.
"Then," said Tom, "you can depend on it the men are all right, and their relatives know it. I wonder how it would do to make inquiries at that end? Question some of the relatives."
"Bless my hat band!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who was at the conference. "I never thought of that. I'll do it for you."
The odd man had gotten his quinine gathering24 business well under way now, and he had some spare time. So, with an interpreter who could be trusted, he went to the native village whence had come nearly all of the ten missing men. But though Mr. Damon found some of their relatives, the latter, with shrugs25 of their shoulders, declared they had seen nothing of the ones sought.
"And they didn't seem to worry much, either," reported Mr. Damon.
"Then we can depend on it," remarked Tom, "that the men are all right and their relatives know it. There's some conspiracy26 here."
So it seemed. But who was at the bottom of it?
"I can't figure out where Blakeson & Grinder come in," said Job Titus. "They would have an object in crippling us, but they seem to be working from the financial end, trying to make us fail there. I haven't seen any of their sneaking27 agents around here lately, and as for Waddington he seems to have stayed up North."
Tom resumed his vigil in the tunnel, poking here and there, but with little success. His week was about up, and he would soon have to resume his character as powder expert, for the debris was nearly all cleaned up, and another blast would have to be fired shortly.
"Well, I'm stumped28!" Tom admitted, the day when he was to come on duty for the last time as a pretended foreman. "I've hunted all over, and I can't find any secret passage."
It was warm in the tunnel, and Tom, having seen one train of the dump cars loaded, sat down to rest on an elevated ledge29 of rock, where he had made a sort of easy chair for himself, with empty cement bags for cushions.
The heat, his weariness and the monotonous30 clank-clank of a water pump near by, and the equally monotonous thump31 of the lumps of rocks in the cars made Tom drowsy32. Almost before he knew it he was asleep.
What suddenly awakened33 him he could not tell. Perhaps it was some influence on the brain cells, as when a vivid dream causes us to start up from slumber34, or it may have been a voice. For certainly Tom heard a voice, he declared afterward35.
As he roused up he found himself staring at the rocky wall of the tunnel. And yet the wall seemed to have an opening in it and in the opening, as if it were in the frame of a picture, appeared the face Tom had seen at his library the day Job Titus called on him—the face of Waddington!
Tom sat up so quickly that he hit his head sharply on a projecting rock spur, and, for the moment he "saw stars." And with the appearance of these twinkling points of light the face of Waddington seemed to fade away, as might a vision in a dream.
"Bless my salt mackerel, as Mr. Damon would say!" cried Tom. "What have I discovered?"
He rubbed his head where he had struck it, and then passed his hand before his eyes, to make sure he was awake. But the vision, if vision it was, had vanished, and he saw only the bare rock wall. However, the echo of the voice remained in his ears, and, looking down toward the tunnel floor Tom saw Serato, the Indian foreman.
"No, sar. I not know you there!" and the foreman seemed startled at seeing Tom. Clearly he was in a fright.
"You were speaking!" insisted Tom.
"No, sar!" The man shook his head.
"To some one up there!" went on the young inventor, waving his hand toward the spot where he had seen the face in the rock.
"Me speak to roof? No, sar!" Serato laughed.
Tom did not know what to believe.
"You hear me tell um lazy man to much hurry," the Indian went on. "Me not know you sleep there, sar!"
"Oh, all right," Tom said, recollecting37 that he must keep up his disguise. "Maybe I was dreaming."
"Yes, sar," and the foreman hurried on, with a backward glance over his shoulder.
"Now was I dreaming or not?" thought Tom. "I'm going to have a look at that place though, where I saw Waddington's face. Or did I imagine it?"
He got a long pole and a powerful flash lamp, and when he had a chance, unobserved, he poked38 around in the vicinity where he had seen the face.
But there was only solid rock.
"It must have been a dream," Tom concluded. "I've been thinking too much about this business. I'll have to give up. I can't solve the mystery of the missing men."
The next day, much disappointed, he resumed his own character as explosive expert, and prepared for another blast. The net result of his watch was that he became suspicious of Serato, and so informed the Titus Brothers.
"Oh, but you're mistaken," said Job. "We have had him for years, on other contracts in Peru, and we trust him."
"Well, I don't," Tom said, but he had to let it go at that.
Another blast was set off, but it was not very successful.
"The rock seems to be getting harder the farther in we go," commented Walter Titus. "We're not up to where we ought to be."
"I'll have to look into it," answered Tom. "I may have to change the powder mixture. Guess I'll go up the mountain a way, and see if there are any outcroppings of rock there that would give me an idea of what lies underneath39."
Accordingly, while the men in the tunnel were clearing away the rock loosened by the blast, Tom, one day, taking his electric rifle with him, went up the mountain under which the big bore ran.
He located, by computation, the spot beneath which the end of the tunnel then was, and began collecting samples of the outcropping ledge. He wanted to analyze40 these pieces of stone later. Koku was with him, and, giving the giant a bag of stones to carry, Tom walked on rather idly.
It was a wild and desolate41 region in which he found himself on the side of the mountain. Beyond him stretched towering and snow-clad peaks, and high in the air were small specks42, which he knew to be condors43, watching with their eager eyes for their offal food.
As Tom and Koku made their way along the mountain trail they came unexpectedly upon an Indian workman who was gathering herbs and bark, an industry by which many of the natives added to their scanty45 livelihood46. The woman was familiar with the appearance of the white men, and nodded in friendly fashion.
Tom passed on, thinking of many things, when he was suddenly startled by a scream from the woman. It was a scream of such terror and agony that, for the moment, Tom was stunned47 into inactivity. Then, as he turned, he saw a great condor44 sweeping48 down out of the air, the wind fairly whistling through the big, outstretched wings.
"Jove!" ejaculated Tom. "Can the bird be going to attack the woman?"
But this was not the object of the condor. It was aiming to strike, with its fierce talons49, at a point some paces distant from where the woman stood, and in the intervals between her screams Tom heard her cry, in her native tongue:
"My baby! My baby! The beast-bird will carry off my baby!"
Then Tom understood. The woman herb-gatherer had brought her infant with her on her quest, and had laid it down on a bed of soft grass while she worked. And it was this infant, wrapped as Tom afterward saw in a piece of deer-skin, at which the condor was aiming.
"Master shoot!" cried Koku, pointing to the down-sweeping bird.
"You bet I'll shoot!" cried Tom.
Throwing his electric rifle to his shoulder, Tom pressed the switch trigger. The unseen but powerful force shot straight at the condor.
The outstretched wings fell limp, the great body seemed to shrivel up, and, with a crash, the bird fell into the underbrush, breaking the twigs50 and branches with its weight. The electric rifle, a full account of which was given in the volume entitled "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle," had done its work well.
With a scream, in which was mingled51 a cry of thanks, the woman threw herself on the sleeping child. The condor had fallen dead not three paces from it.
Tom Swift had shot just in time.
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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incandescent
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| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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7
oversaw
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| v.监督，监视( oversee的过去式 ) | |
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8
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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10
fissure
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| n.裂缝；裂伤 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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12
debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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13
excavated
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| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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14
fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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17
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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18
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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19
emulated
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| v.与…竞争( emulate的过去式和过去分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿 | |
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imps
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| n.（故事中的）小恶魔( imp的名词复数 )；小魔鬼；小淘气；顽童 | |
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21
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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disappearances
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| n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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shrugs
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| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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28
stumped
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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recollecting
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| v.记起，想起( recollect的现在分词 ) | |
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38
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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40
analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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41
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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42
specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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43
condors
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| n.神鹰( condor的名词复数 ) | |
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44
condor
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| n.秃鹰；秃鹰金币 | |
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45
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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47
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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48
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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49
talons
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| n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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50
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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51
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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