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

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER XXI

  THE CAVERN

  "Now Goosal can tell you," said Tal, evidently pleased that he had, ina measure, solved the problem caused by the burning of the professor'smap. "Goosal very old Indian. He know old stories--legends--very old."

  "Well, if he can tell us how to find the buried city of Kurzon andthe--the things in it," said Tom, "he's all right!"

  The aged Indian proceeded slowly toward the hut where the impatientyouths awaited him.

  "I know what you seek in the buried city," remarked Tal.

  "Do you?" cried Tom, wondering if some one had indiscreetly spoken ofthe idol of gold.

  "Yes you want pieces of rock, with strange writings on them, oldweapons, broken pots. I know. I have helped white men before."

  "Yes, those are the things we want," agreed Tom, with a glance at hischum. "That is--some of them. But does your wife's grandfather talkour language?"

  "No, but I can tell you what he says."

  By this time the old man, led by "Mrs. Tal"--as the young men calledthe wife of the Indian they had helped--entered the hut. He seemednervous and shy, and glanced from Tom and Ned to his grandson-in-law,as the latter talked rapidly in the Indian dialect. Then Goosal madeanswer, but what it was all about the boys could not tell.

  "Goosal say," translated Tal, "that he know a story of a very old cityaway down under ground."

  "Tell us about it!" urged Tom eagerly.

  But a difficulty very soon developed. Tal's intentions were good, buthe was not equal to the task of translating. Nor was the understandingof Tom and Ned of Spanish quite up to the mark.

  "Say, this is too much for me!" exclaimed Tom. "We are losing the mostvaluable part of this by not understanding what Goosal says, and whatTal translates."

  "What can we do?" asked Ned.

  "Get the professor here as soon as possible. He can manage thisdialect, and he'll get the information at first hand. If Goosal cantell where to begin excavating for the city he ought to tell theprofessor, not us."

  "That's right," agreed Ned. "We'll bring the professor here as soon aswe can."

  Accordingly they stopped the somewhat difficult task of listening tothe translated story and told Tal, as well as they could, that theywould bring the "man-with-no-hair-on-his-head" to listen to the tale.

  This seemed to suit the Indians, all of whom in the small colonyappeared to be very grateful to Tom and Ned for having saved the lifeof Tal.

  "That was a good shot you made when you bowled over the jaguar," saidNed, as the two young explorers started back to their camp.

  "Better than I realized, if it leads to the discovery of Kurzon and theidol of gold," remarked Tom.

  "And to think we should come across the oiled-silk holding the poisonedarrows!" went on Ned. "That's the strangest part of the whole affair.If it hadn't been that you shot the jaguar this never would have comeabout."

  That Professor Bumper was astonished, and Mr. Damon likewise, when theyheard the story of Tom and Ned, is stating it mildly.

  "Come on!" exclaimed the scientist, as Tom finished, "we must see thisGoosal at once. If my map is destroyed, and it seems to be, this oldIndian may be our only hope. Where did he say the buried city was,Tom?"

  "Oh, somewhere in this vicinity, as nearly as I could make out. Butyou'd better talk with him yourself. We didn't say anything about theidol of gold."

  "That's right. It's just as well to let the natives think we are onlyafter ordinary relics."

  "Bless my insurance policy!" gasped Mr. Damon. "It does not seempossible that we are on the right track."

  "Well, I think we are, from what little information Goosal gave us,"remarked Tom. "This buried city of his must be a wonderful place."

  "It is, if it is what I take it to be," agreed the professor. "I toldyou I would bring you to a land of wonders, Tom Swift, and they havehardly begun yet. Come, I am anxious to talk to Goosal."

  In order that the Indians in the Bumper camp might not hear rumors ofthe new plan to locate the hidden city, and, at the same time, to keeprumors from spreading to the camp of the rivals, the scientist and hisfriends started a new shaft, and put a shift of men at work on it.

  "We'll pretend we are on the right track, and very busy," said Tom."That will fool Beecher."

  "Are you glad to know he did not take your map Professor Bumper?" askedMr. Damon.

  "Well, yes. It is hard to believe such things of a fellow scientist."

  "If he didn't take it he wanted to," said Tom. "And he has done, orwill do, things as unsportsmanlike."

  "Oh, you are hardly fair, perhaps, Tom," commented Ned.

  "Um!" was all the answer he received.

  With the Indians in camp busy on the excavation work, and havingascertained that similar work was going on in the Beecher outfit,Professor Bumper, with Mr. Damon and the young men, set off to visitthe Indian village and listen to Goosal's story. They passed the placewhere Tom had slain the jaguar, but nothing was left but the bones; theants, vultures and jungle animals having picked them clean in the night.

  On the arrival of Tom and his friends at the Indian's hut, Goosal told,in language which Professor Bumper could understand, the ancient legendof the buried city as he had had it from his grandfather.

  "But is that all you know about it, Goosal?" asked the savant.

  "No, Learned One. It is true most of what I have told you was told tome by my father and his father's father. But I--I myself--with theseeyes, have looked upon the lost city."

  "You have!" cried the professor, this time in English. "Where? When?Take us to it! How do you get here?"

  "Through the cavern of the dead," was the answer when the questionswere modified.

  "Bless my diamond ring!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when Professor Bumpertranslated the reply. "What does he mean?"

  And then, after some talk, this information came out. Years before,when Goosal was a young man, he had been taken by his grandfather on ajourney through the jungle. They stopped one day at the foot of a highmountain, and, clearing away the brush and stones at a certain place,an entrance to a great cavern was revealed. This, it appeared, was theIndian burial ground, and had been used for generations.

  Goosal, though in fear and trembling, was lead through it, and came toanother cavern, vaster than the first. And there he saw strange andwonderful sights, for it was the remains of a buried city, that hadonce been the home of a great and powerful tribe unlike theIndians--the ancient Mayas it would seem.

  "Can you take us to this cavern?" asked the professor.

  "Yes," answered Goosal. "I will lead to it those who saved the life ofTal--them and their friends. I will take you to the lost city!"

  "Good!" cried Mr. Damon, when this had been translated. "Now letBeecher try to play any more tricks on us! Ho! for the cavern and thelost city of Kurzon."

  "And the idol of gold," said Tom Swift to himself. "I hope we can getit ahead of Beecher. Perhaps if I can help in that--Oh, well, here'shoping, that's all!" and a little smile curved his lips.

  Greatly excited by the strange news, but maintaining as calm an airoutwardly as possible, so as not to excite the Indians, Tom and hisfriends returned to camp to prepare for their trip. Goosal had saidthe cavern lay distant more than a two-days' journey into the jungle.