“Curious? Curious!” asked and exclaimed Mr. Titus.
“Why, yes,” went on the little man, in the most matter of fact tone. “You see, most explosive bombs are round, made that way so the force will be equal in all directions. But this one, you notice, has a bulge, or protuberance, on one side, so to speak. Very curious!
“It might have been made that way to prevent its rolling overboard, or the bomb’s walls might be weaker near that bulge to make sure that the force of the explosion would be in that direction. And the bulge was pointed toward you gentlemen, if you noticed.”
“I should say I did!” cried Mr. Titus. “My dear sir, you have put us under a heavy debt to you! You saved our lives! I—I am in no frame of mind to thank you now, but—”
He strode over to the little man, holding out his hand.
“No, no, I’d better keep it,” went on the person who had rendered the bomb ineffective. “You might drop it you know. You are nervous—your hand shakes.”
“I want to shake hands with you!” exclaimed Mr. Titus—”to thank you!”
“Oh, that’s it. I thought you wanted the bomb. Shake hands? Certainly!”
And while this ceremony was being gone through with, Tom had a moment to study the appearance of the man who had saved their lives. He had seen the passenger once or twice before, but had taken no special notice of him. Now he had good reason to observe him.
Tom beheld a little, thin man, little in the sense of being of the “bean pole” construction. His head was as bald as a billiard ball, as the young inventor could notice when the stranger took off his hat to bow formally in response to the greeting of some ladies who passed, while Mr. Titus was shaking hands with him.
The bald head was sunk down between two high shoulders, and when the owner wished to observe anything closely, as he was now observing the bomb, the head was thrust forward somewhat as an eagle might do. And Tom noticed that the eyes of the little man were as bright as those of an eagle. Nothing seemed to escape them.
“I want to add my thanks to those of Mr. Titus for saving our lives,” said Tom, as he advanced. “We don’t know what to make of it all, but you certainly stopped that bomb from going off.”
“Yes, perhaps I did,” admitted the little man coolly and calmly, as though preventing bomb explosions was his daily exercise before breakfast.
Tom and Mr. Titus introduced themselves by name.
“I am Professor Swyington Bumper,” said the bomb-holder, with a bow, removing his hat, and again disclosing his shiny bald head. “I am very glad to have met you indeed.”
“And we are more than glad,” said Tom, fervently, as he glanced at the explosive.
“Now that the danger is over,” went on Mr. Titus, “suppose we make an investigation, and find out how this bomb came to be here.”
“Just what I was about to suggest,” remarked Professor Bumper. “Bombs, such as this, do not sprout of themselves on bare decks. And I take it this one is explosive.”
“Let me look at it,” suggested Tom. “I know something of explosives.”
It needed but a casual examination on the part of one who had done considerable experimenting with explosives to disclose the fact that it had every characteristic of a dangerous bomb. Only the pulling out of the fuse had rendered it harmless.
“If it had gone off,” said Tom, “we would both have been killed, or, at least, badly injured, Mr. Titus.”
“I believe you, Tom. And we owe our lives to Professor Bumper.”
“I’m glad I could be of service, gentlemen,” the scientist remarked, in an easy tone. “Explosives are out of my line, but I guessed it was rather dangerous to let this go off. Have you any idea how it got here?”
“Not in the least,” said Tom. “But some one must have placed it here, or dropped it behind us.”
“Would any one have an object in doing such a thing?” the professor asked.
Tom and Mr. Titus looked at one another.
“Waddington!” murmured the contractor. “If he were on board I should say he might have done it to get us out of the way, though I would not go so far as to say he meant to kill us. It may be this bomb has only a light charge in it, and he only meant to cripple us.”
“We’ll find out about that,” said Tom. “I’ll open it.”
“Better be careful,” urged Mr. Titus.
“I will,” the young inventor promised. “I beg your pardon,” he went on to Professor Bumper. “We have been talking about something of which you know nothing. Briefly, there is a certain man who is trying to interfere in some work in which Mr. Titus and I are interested, and we think, if he were on board, he might have placed this bomb where it would injure us.”
“Is he here?” asked the professor.
“No. And that is what makes it all the more strange,” said Mr. Titus. “At one time I thought he was here, but I was mistaken.”
Tom took the now harmless bomb to his stateroom, and there, after taking the infernal machine apart, he discovered that it was not as dangerous as he had at first believed.
The bomb contained no missiles, and though it held a quantity of explosive, it was of a slow burning kind. Had it gone off it would have sent out a sheet of flame that would have severely burned him and Mr. Titus, but unless complications had set in death would not have resulted.
“They just wanted to disable us,” said the contractor. “That was their game. Tom, who did it?”
“I don’t know. Did you ever see this Professor Bumper before?”
“I never did.”
“And did it strike you as curious that he should happen to be so near at hand when the bomb fell behind us?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” admitted the contractor. “Do you mean that he might have dropped it himself?”
“Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” replied Tom, slowly. “But I think it would be a good idea to find out all we can of Professor Swyington Bumper.”
“I agree with you, Tom. We’ll investigate him.”
CHAPTER XI
IN THE ANDES
Professor Swyington Bumper seemed to live in a region all by himself. Though he was on board the Bellaconda, he might just as well have been in an airship, or riding along on the back of a donkey, as far as his knowledge, or recognition, of his surroundings went. He seemed to be thinking thoughts far, far away, and he was never without a book—either a bound volume or a note-book. In the former he buried his hawk-like nose, and Tom, looking over his shoulder once, saw that the book was printed in curious characters, which, later, he learned were Sanskrit. If he had a note-book the bald-headed professor was continually jotting down memoranda in it.
“I can hardly think of him as a conspirator against us,” said Tom to Mr. Titus.
“After you have been in the contracting business as long as I have you’ll distrust every one,” was the answer. “Waddington isn’t on board, or I’d distrust him. That Spaniard, Senor Pinto, seems to be out of consideration, and there only remains the professor. We must watch him.”
But Professor Bumper proved to be above suspicion. Carefully guarded inquiries made of the captain, the purser and other ships’ officers, brought out the fact that he was well known to all of them, having traveled on the line before.
“He is making a search for something, but he won’t say what it is,” the captain said. “At first we thought it was gold or jewels, for he goes away off into the Andes Mountains, where both gold and jewels have been found. He never looks for treasure, though, for though some of his party have made rather rich discoveries, he takes no interest in them.”
“What is he after then?” asked Mr. Titus.
“No one knows, and he won’t tell. But whatever it is he has never found it yet. Always, when he comes back, unsuccessful, from a trip to the interior and goes back North with us, he will remark that he has not the right directions. That he must seek again.
“Back he comes next season, as full of hope as before, but only
to be disappointed. Each time he goes to a new place in the mountains where he digs and delves, so members of the parties he hires tell me, but with no success. He carries with him something in a small iron box, and, whatever this is, he consults it from time to time. It may be directions for finding whatever he is after. But there seems to be something wrong.”
“This is quite a mystery,” remarked Tom.
“It certainly is. But Professor Bumper is a fine man. I have known him for years.”
“This seems to dispose of the theory that he planted the bomb, and that he is one of the plotters in the pay of Blakeson & Grinder,” said Mr. Titus, when he and Tom were alone.
“Yes, I guess it does. But who can have done it?”
That was a question neither could answer.
Tom had a theory, which he did not disclose to Mr. Titus, that, after all, the somewhat mysterious Senor Pinto might, in some way, be mixed up in the bomb attempt. But a close questioning of the steward on duty near the foreigner’s cabin at the time disclosed the fact that Pinto had been ill in his berth all that day.
“Well, unless the bomb fell from some passing airship, I don’t see how it got on deck,” said Tom with a shake of his head. “And I’m sure no airship passed over us.”
They had kept the matter secret, not telling even Mr. Damon, for they feared the eccentric man would make a fuss and alarm the whole vessel. So Mr. Damon, occasionally blessing his necktie or his shoe laces, played chess with his elderly gentleman friend and was perfectly happy.
That Professor Bumper not only had kept his promise about not mentioning the bomb, but that he had forgotten all about it, was evident a day or two after the happening. Tom and Mr. Titus passed him on deck, and bowed cordially. The professor returned the salutation, but looked at the two in a puzzled sort of fashion.
“I beg your pardon,” he remarked, “but your faces are familiar, though I cannot recall your names. Haven’t I seen you before?”
“You have,” said Tom, with a smile. “You saved our lives from a bomb the other day.”
“Oh, yes! So I did! So I did!” exclaimed Professor Bumper. “I felt sure I had seen you before. Are you all right?”
“Yes. There haven’t been any more bombs thrown at us,” the contractor said. “By the way, Professor Bumper, I understand you are quite a traveler in the Andes, in the vicinity of Lima.”
“Yes, I have been there,” admitted the bald-headed scientist in guarded tones.
“Well, I am digging a tunnel in that vicinity,” went on Mr. Titus, “and if you ever get near Rimac, where the first cutting is made, I wish you would come and see me—Tom too, as he is associated with me.”
“Rimac-Rimac,” murmured the professor, looking sharply at the contractor. “Digging a tunnel there? Why are you doing that?” and he seemed to resent the idea.
“Why, the Peruvian government engaged me to do it to connect the two railroad lines,” was the answer. “Do you know anything about the place?”
“Not so much as I hope to later on,” was the unexpected answer. “As it happens I am going to Rimac, and I may visit your tunnel.”
“I wish you would,” returned Mr. Titus.
Later on, in their stateroom, the contractor remarked to the young inventor:
“Sort of queer; isn’t it?”
“What?” asked Tom. “His not remembering us?”
“No, though that was odd. But I suppose he is forgetful, or pretends to be. I mean it’s queer he is going to Rimac.”
“What do you mean?” asked Tom.
“Well, I don’t know exactly what I mean,” went on the tunnel contractor, “but our tunnel happens to start at Rimac, which is a small town at the base of the mountains.”
“Maybe the professor is a geologist,” suggested Tom, “and he may want to get some samples of that hard rock.”
“Maybe,” admitted Mr. Titus. “But I shall keep my eyes on him all the same. I’m not going to have any strangers, who happen to be around when bombs drop near us, get into my tunnel.”
“I think you’re wrong to doubt Professor Bumper,” Tom said.
A few days after this, when Tom and Mr. Titus were casually discussing the weather on deck and wondering how much longer it would be before they reached Callao, Mr. Damon, who had been playing numberless games of chess, came up for a breath of air.
“Mr. Damon,” called Tom, “come over here and meet a friend of ours, Professor Bumper,” and he was about to introduce them, for the two, as far as Tom knew, had not yet met. But no sooner had the professor and Mr. Damon caught sight of each other than there was a look of mutual recognition.
“Bless my fountain pen!” cried the eccentric man. “If it isn’t my old friend!”
“Mr. Damon!” cried the professor. “I am delighted to see you again. I did not know you were on board!”
“Nor I you. Bless my apple dumpling! Are you still after those Peruvian antiquities?”
“I am, Mr. Damon. But I did not know you were acquainted with Mr. Swift.”
“Oh, Tom and I are old friends.”
“Professor Bumper saved the lives of Mr. Titus and myself,” said Tom, “or at least he saved us from severe injury by a bomb.”
“Pray do not mention it, my friends,” put in the professor, casually. “It was nothing.”
Of course he did not mean it just that way.
Then, naturally, Mr. Damon had to be told all about the bomb for the first time, and his wonder was great. He blessed everything he could think of.
“And to think it should be my old friend, Professor Bumper, who saved you,” said the odd man to Tom and Mr. Titus later that day.
“Do you know him well?” asked Mr. Titus.
“Very well indeed. Our drug concern sells him many chemicals for his experiments.”
“Well, if you know him I guess he can’t be what I thought he was,” the contractor went on. “I’m glad to know it. Why is he going to the Andes?”
“Oh, for many years he has been interested in collecting Peruvian antiquities. He has a certain theory in regard to something or other about their ancient civilization, but just what it is I have, at this moment, forgotten. Only I know you can thoroughly trust Professor Bumper, for a finer man never lived, though he is a bit absent-minded at times. But you will like him very much.”
Thus the last lingering doubt of Professor Bumper was removed. Mr. Damon told something of how the scientist had been honored by degrees from many colleges and was regarded as an authority on Peruvian matters.
But who had placed the bomb on deck remained a mystery.
In due time Callao, the seaport of Lima, was reached and our friends disembarked. Tom saw to the unloading of the explosive, which was to be sent direct to the tunnel at Rimac. Mr. Titus, Tom and Mr. Damon would remain in Lima a day or so.
Professor Bumper disembarked with our friends, and stopped at the same hotel. Tom kept a lookout for Senor Pinto, but did not see him, and concluded that the Spaniard was ill, and would be carried ashore on a stretcher, perhaps.
Lima, the principal city and capital of Peru, proved an interesting place. It was about eight miles inland and was built on an arid plain about five hundred feet above sea level. Yet, though it was on what might be termed a desert, the place, by means of irrigation, had been made into a beauty spot.
Tom found the older part of the city was laid out with mathematical regularity, each street crossing the other at right angles. But in the new portions there was not this adherence to straightness.
“Bless my transfer! Why, they have electric cars here!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, catching sight of one on the line between Callao and the capital.
“What did you think they’d have?” asked Mr. Titus, “elephants or camels?”
“I—I didn’t just know,” was the answer.
“Oh, you’ll find a deal of civilization here,” the contractor said. “Of course much of the population is negro or Indian, but they are often rich and able to buy what they
want. There is a population of over 150,000, and there are two steam railroads between Callao and Lima, while there is one running into the interior for 130 miles, crossing the Andes at an elevation of over three miles. It is a branch of that road, together with a branch of the one running to Ancon, that I am to connect with a tunnel.”
Tom found some beautiful churches and cathedrals in Lima, and spent some time visiting them. He and Mr. Damon also visited, in the outskirts, the tobacco, cocoa and other factories.
Three days after reaching the capital, Mr. Titus having attended to some necessary business while Mr. Damon set on foot matters connected with his affairs, it was decided to strike inland to Rimac, and to try the effect of Tom Swift’s explosive on the tunnel.
The journey was to be made in part by rail, though the last stages of it were over a rough mountain trail, with llamas for beasts of burden, while our friends rode mules.
As Tom, Mr. Damon, Koku, and Mr. Titus were going to the railroad station they saw Professor Bumper also leaving the hotel.
“I believe our roads lie together for a time,” said the bald-headed scientist, “and, if you have no objections, I will accompany you.”
“Come, and welcome!” exclaimed Mr. Titus, all his suspicions now gone.
“And it may be that you will be able to help me,” the scientist went on.
“Help you—how?” asked Tom.
“I will tell you when we reach the Andes,” was the mysterious answer.
It was a day later when they left the train at a small station, and struck off into the foothills of the great Andes Mountains, where the tunnel was started, that the professor again mentioned his object.
“Friends,” he said, as he gazed up at the towering cliffs and crags, “I am searching for the lost city of Pelone, located somewhere in these mountains. Will you help me to find it?”
CHAPTER XII
THE TUNNEL
Mr. Damon, of the three who heard Professor Bumper make this statement, showed the least sign of astonishment. It would have been more correct to say that he showed none at all. But Tom could not restrain himself.
The Tom Swift Megapack Page 236
