Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders; Or, The Underground Search for the Idol of Gold

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE LOST MAP

  The on-marching company of white men, with their Indian attendants,came to a halt on the edge of the clearing as they caught sight of thetents already set up there. The barbaric chant of the native bearersceased abruptly, and there was a look of surprise shown on the face ofProfessor Fenimore Beecher. For Professor Beecher it was, in the leadof the rival expedition.

  "Bless my shoe laces!" exclaimed Mr. Damon.

  "Is it really Beecher?" asked Ned, though he knew as well as Tom thatit was the young archaeologist.

  "It certainly is!" declared Tom. "And he has nerve to follow us soclosely!"

  "Maybe he thinks we have nerve to get here ahead of him," suggestedNed, smiling grimly.

  "Probably," agreed Tom, with a short laugh. "Well, it evidentlysurprises him to find us here at all, after the mean trick he played onus to get Jacinto to lead us into the jungle and desert us."

  "That's right," assented Ned. "Well, what's the next move?"

  There seemed to be some doubt about this on the part of bothexpeditions. At the sight of Professor Beecher, Professor Bumper, whohad come out of his tent, hurriedly turned to Tom and asked him what hethought it best to do.

  "Do!" exclaimed the eccentric Mr. Damon, not giving Tom time to reply."Why, stand your ground, of course! Bless my house and lot! but we'rehere first! For the matter of that, I suppose the jungle is free and wecan no more object to his coming here than he can to our coming.First come, first served, I suppose is the law of the forest."

  Meanwhile the surprise occasioned by the unexpected meeting of theirrivals seemed to have spread something like consternation among thewhite members of the Beecher party. As for the natives they evidentlydid not care one way or the other.

  There was a hasty consultation among the professors accompanying Mr.Beecher, and then the latter himself advanced toward the tents of Tomand his friends and asked:

  "How long have you been here?"

  "I don't see that we are called upon to answer that question," repliedProfessor Bumper stiffly.

  "Perhaps not, and yet----"

  "There is no perhaps about it!" said Professor Bumper quickly. "I knowwhat your object is, as I presume you do mine. And, after what I mayterm your disgraceful and unsportsmanlike conduct toward me and myfriends, I prefer not to have anything further to do with you. We mustmeet as strangers hereafter."

  "Very well," and Professor Beecher's voice was as cold anduncompromising as was his rival's. "Let it be as your wish. But Imust say I don't know what you mean by unsportsmanlike conduct."

  "An explanation would be wasted on you," said Professor Bumper stiffly."But in order that you may know I fully understand what you did I willsay that your efforts to thwart us through your tool Jacinto came tonothing. We are here ahead of you."

  "Jacinto!" cried Professor Beecher in real or simulated surprise."Why, he was not my 'tool,' as you term it."

  "Your denial is useless in the light of his confession," assertedProfessor Bumper.

  "Confession?"

  "Now look here!" exclaimed the older professor, "I do not propose tolower myself by quarreling with you. I know certainly what you andyour party tried to do to prevent us from getting here. But we got outof the trap you set for us, and we are on the ground first. Irecognize your right to make explorations as well as ourselves, and Ipresume you have not fallen so low that you will not recognize theunwritten law in a case of this kind--the law which says the right ofdiscovery belongs to the one who first makes it."

  "I shall certainly abide by such conduct as is usual under thecircumstances," said Professor Beecher more stiffly than before. "Atthe same time I must deny having set a trap. And as for Jacinto----"

  "It will be useless to discuss it further!" broke in Professor Bumper.

  "Then no more need be said," retorted the younger man. "I shall giveorders to my friends, as well as to the natives, to keep away from yourcamp, and I shall expect you to do the same regarding mine."

  "I should have suggested the same thing myself," came from Tom'sfriend, and the two rival scientists fairly glared at one another, theothers of both parties looking on with interest.

  Professor Bumper turned and walked defiantly back to his tent.Professor Beecher did the same thing. Then, after a short consultationamong the white members of the latter's organization, their tents wereset up in another clearing, removed and separated by a screen of treesand bushes from those of Tom Swift's friends. The natives of theBeecher party also withdrew a little way from those of ProfessorBumper's organization, and then preparations for spending the night inthe jungle went on in the rival headquarters.

  "Well, he certainly had nerve, to deny, practically, that he had setJacinto up to do what he did," commented Tom.

  "I should say so!" agreed Ned.

  "How do you imagine he got here nearly as soon as we did, when he didnot start until later?" asked Mr. Damon.

  "He did not have the unfortunate experience of being deserted in thejungle," replied Tom. "He probably had Jacinto, or some of thatunprincipled scoundrel's friends, show him a short route to Copan andhe came on from there."

  "Well, I did hope we might have the ground to ourselves, at least forthe preliminary explorations and excavations. But it is not to be. Myrival is here," sighed Professor Bumper.

  "Don't let that discourage you!" exclaimed Tom. "We can fight all thebetter now the foe is in the open, and we know where he is."

  "Yes, Tom Swift, that is true," agreed the scientist. "I am not goingto give up, but I shall have to change my plans a little. Perhaps youwill come into the tent with me," and he nodded to Tom and Ned. "Iwant to talk over certain matters with you and Mr. Damon."

  "Pleased to," assented the young inventor, and his financial secretarynodded.

  A little later, supper having been eaten, the camp made shipshape andthe natives settled down, Tom, Ned, Mr. Damon and Professor Bumperassembled in the tent of the scientist, where a dry battery lamp gavesufficient illumination to show a number of maps and papers scatteredover an improvised table.

  "Now, gentlemen," said the professor, "I have called you here to goover my plans more in detail than I have hitherto done, now we are onthe ground. You know in a general way what I hope to accomplish, butthe time has come when I must be specific.

  "Aside from being on the spot, below which, or below the vicinitywhere, I believe, lies the lost city of Kurzon and, I hope, the idol ofgold, a situation has arisen--an unexpected situation, I may say--whichcalls for different action from that I had counted on.

  "I refer to the presence of my rival, Professor Beecher. I will notdwell now on what he has done. It is better to consider what he maydo."

  "That's right," agreed Ned. "He may get up in the night, dig up thiscity and skip with that golden image before we know it."

  "Hardly," grinned Tom.

  "No," said Professor Bumper. "Excavating buried cities in the jungleof Honduras is not as simple as that. There is much work to be done.But accidents may happen, and in case one should occur to me, and I beunable to prosecute the search, I want one of you to do it. For thatreason I am going to show you the maps and ancient documents and pointout to you where I believe the lost city lies. Now, if you will giveme your attention, I'll proceed."

  The professor went over in detail the story of how he had found the olddocuments relating to the lost city of Kurzon, and of how, after muchlabor and research, he had located the city in the Copan valley. Thegreat idol of gold was one of the chief possessions of Kurzon, and itwas often referred to in the old papers; copies and translations ofwhich the professor had with him.

  "But this is the most valuable of all," he said, as he opened anoiled-silk packet. "And before I show it to you, suppose you two youngmen take a look outside the tent."

  "What for?" asked Mr. Damon.

  "To make sure that no emissaries from the Beecher crowd are sneakingaround to overhear what we say," was the somew
hat bitter answer of thescientist. "I do not trust him, in spite of his attempted denial."

  Tom and Ned took a quick but thorough observation outside the tent.The blackness of the jungle night was in strange contrast to the lightthey had just left.

  "Doesn't seem to be any one around here," remarked Ned, after waiting aminute or two.

  "No. All's quiet along the Potomac. Those Beecher natives are havingsome sort of a song-fest, though."

  In the distance, and from the direction of their rivals' camp, came theweird chant.

  "Well, as long as they stay there we'll be all right," said Tom. "Comeon in. I'm anxious to hear what the professor has to say."

  "Everything's quiet," reported Ned.

  "Then give me your attention," begged the scientist.

  Carefully, as though about to exhibit some, precious jewel, he loosenedthe oiled-silk wrappings and showed a large map, on thin but toughpaper.

  "This is drawn from the old charts," the professor explained. "Iworked on it many months, and it is the only copy in the world. If itwere to be destroyed I should have to go all the way back to New Yorkto make another copy. I have the original there in a safe depositvault."

  "Wouldn't it have been wise to make two copies?" asked Tom.

  "It would have only increased the risk. With one copy, and thatconstantly in my possession, I can be sure of my ground. Otherwisenot. That is why I am so careful of this. Now I will show you why Ibelieve we are about over the ancient city of Kurzon."

  "Over it!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my gunpowder! What do you mean?"and he looked down at the earthen floor of the tent as though expectingit to open and swallow him.

  "I mean that the city, like many others of Central and South America,is buried below the refuse of centuries," went on the professor. "Verysoon, if we are fortunate, we shall be looking on the civilization ofhundreds of years ago--how long no one knows.

  "Considerable excavation has been done in Central America," went onProfessor Bumper, "and certain ruins have been brought to light. Nearus are those of Copan, while toward the frontier are those of Quirigua,which are even better preserved than the former. We may visit them ifwe have time. But I have reason to believe that in this section ofCopan is a large city, the existence of which has not been made certainof by any one save myself--and, perhaps, Professor Beecher.

  "Certainly no part of it has seen the light of day for many centuries.It shall be our pleasure to uncover it, if possible, and secure theidol of gold."

  "How long ago do you think the city was buried?" asked Tom.

  "It would be hard to say. From the carvings and hieroglyphics I havestudied it would seem that the Mayan civilization lasted about fivehundred years, and that it began perhaps in the year A. D. fivehundred."

  "That would mean," said Mr. Damon, "that the ancient cities were inruins, buried, perhaps, long before Columbus discovered the new world."

  "Yes," assented the professor. "Probably Kurzon, which we now seek,was buried deep for nearly five hundred years before Columbus landed atSan Salvadore. The specimens of writing and architecture heretoforedisclosed indicate that. But, as a matter of fact, it is very hard todecipher the Mayan pictographs. So far, little but the ability to readtheir calendars and numerical system is possessed by us, though we aregradually making headway.

  "Now this is the map of the district, and by the markings you can seewhere I hope to find what I seek. We shall begin digging here," and hemade a small mark with a pencil on the map.

  "Of course," the professor explained, "I may be wrong, and it will takesome time to discover the error if we make one. When a city is buriedthirty or forty feet deep beneath earth and great trees have grown overit, it is not easy to dig down to it."

  "How do you ever expect to find it?" asked Ned.

  "Well, we will sink shafts here and there. If we find carved stones,the remains of ancient pottery and weapons, parts of buildings orbuilding stones, we shall know we are on the right track," was theanswer. "And now that I have shown you the map, and explained howvaluable it is, I will put it away again. We shall begin ourexcavations in the morning."

  "At what point?" asked Tom.

  "At a point I shall indicate after a further consultation of the map.I must see the configuration of the country by daylight to decide. Andnow let's get some rest. We have had a hard day."

  The two tents housing the four white members of the Bumper party wereclose together, and it was decided that the night would be divided intofour watches, to guard against possible treachery on the part of theBeecher crowd.

  "It seems an unkind precaution to take against a fellow scientist,"said Professor Bumper, "but I can not afford to take chances after whathas occurred."

  The others agreed with him, and though standing guard was not pleasantit was done. However the night passed without incident, and then camemorning and the excitement of getting breakfast, over which the Indiansmade merry. They did not like the cold and darkness, and alwayswelcomed the sun, no matter how hot.

  "And now," cried Tom, when the meal was over, "let us begin the workthat has brought us here."

  "Yes," agreed Professor Bumper, "I will consult the map, and start thediggers where I think the city lies, far below the surface. Now,gentlemen, if you will give me your attention----"

  He was seeking through his outer coat pockets, after an ineffectualsearch in the inner one. A strange look came over his face.

  "What's the matter?" asked Tom.

  "The map--the map!" gasped the professor. "The map I was showing youlast night! The map that tells where we are to dig for the idol ofgold! It's gone!"

  "The map gone?" gasped Mr. Damon.

  "I--I'm afraid so," faltered the professor. "I put it away carefully,but now----"

  He ceased speaking to make a further search in all his pockets.

  "Maybe you left it in another coat," suggested Ned.

  "Or maybe some of the Beecher crowd took it!" snapped Tom.