CHAPTER XXV
THE ESCAPE--CONCLUSION
The noise behind our friends increased. There were shouts of rage,yells of anger at the escape of the prey. High above the othervoices were the shrill war-cries of the head-hunters--the savageswith their grewsome desires.
"Can--can we make it, Tom?" panted Ned.
They were almost at the river channel now, and in another instantthey had reached it.
By the feeble rays of Ned's electric torch they saw with relief thatit was empty, though they would have given much to see just atrickle of water in it, for they were almost dead from thirst.
Together they climbed up the other side, and as yet their pursuershad not reached the brink. For one moment Tom had a thought ofworking the black knob, and flooding the channel, but he could notdoom even the head-hunters, much less the Fogers and Delazes, tosuch a death as that would mean.
On ran Tom and his companions, but now they could glance back andsee the foremost of the other crowd dipping down into the drychannel.
"The steps! The steps!" suddenly cried Ned, when they had run a longdistance, as a faint gleam of daylight beyond shewed the openingbeneath the stone altar. "We're safe now."
"Hardly, but a few minutes will tell," said Tom. "The balloon is inshape for a quick rise, and then we'll leave this horrible placebehind."
"And all the gold, too," murmured Ned regretfully. "We've got some,"said Mr. Damon, "and I wouldn't take a chance with those head-huntersfor all the gold in the underground city."
"Same here!" panted Tom. Then they were at the steps and ran upthem.
Out into the big auditorium they emerged, weak and faint, and towardthe hidden dirigible balloon they rushed.
"Quick!" cried Tom, as he climbed into the car, followed by Mr.Damon and Eradicate. "Shove it right under the broken dome, Ned, andI'll turn on the gas machine. It's partly inflated."
A moment later the balloon was right below the big opening. The bluesky showed through it--a welcome sight to our friends. The hiss ofthe gas was heard, and the bag distended still more.
"Hop in!" cried Tom. "She'll go up I guess."
"There they come!" shouted Ned, as he spoke the foremost of thehead-hunters emerged from the hole beneath the stone altar. He wasfollowed by Delazes.
"Stop them! Get them! Spear them!" cried the contractor. Theyevidently thought our friends had all the gold from the undergroundcity.
Fortunately the temple was so large that the balloon was a gooddistance from the hole leading to the tunnel, and before theforemost of the head-hunters could reach it the dirigible began torise.
"If they throw their spears, and puncture the bag in many placeswe're done for," murmured Tom. But evidently the savages did notthink of this, though Delazes screamed it at them.
Up went the balloon, and not a moment too soon, for one of thehead-hunters actually grabbed the edge of the car, and only let go whenhe found himself being lifted off the temple floor.
Up and up it went and, as it was about to emerge from the brokendome, Tom looked down and saw a curious sight.
Mr. Foger and Andy, who brought up in the rear of the pursuing andattacking party, had just emerged from the hole by the great stonealtar when there suddenly spouted from the same opening a solidcolumn of water. A cry of wonder came from all as they saw thestrange sight. A veritable geyser was now spurting in the verymiddle of the temple floor, and the head-hunters, the Mexicans andthe Fogers ran screaming to get out of the way.
"Look!" cried Ned. "What happened?"
"The underground river must be running the wrong way!" answered Tom,as he prepared to set in motion the motor. "Either they accidentallyturned some hidden lever, or when they raised the stone door theydid it. The tunnel is flooded and--"
"Bless my match box! So is the underground city!" cried Mr. Damon."I guess we've seen the last of it and its gold. We were lucky toescape with our lives, and these fellows might have been drownedlike rats in a trap, if they hadn't followed us. The undergroundcity will never be discovered again."
"And now for home!" cried Tom, when they had eaten and drunksparingly until they should get back their strength, and had seen totheir slight wounds.
"And our trip wasn't altogether a failure," said Mr. Damon. "We'dhave had more gold if the stone door hadn't trapped us. But I guesswe have enough as it is. I wonder how the Fogers ever found us?"
"They must have followed our trail, though how we'll never know andthey came up to where Delazes and his men were, joined forces withthem, and hunted about until they found the temple," remarked Tom."Then they saw the opening, went down, and found the stone door."
"But how did they get it open? and what were they doing with thehead-hunters, and why didn't the head-hunters attack them?" Nedwanted to know.
"Well, I guess perhaps Delazes knew how to handle those head-hunters,"replied Tom. "They may be a sort of lost tribe of Mexicans, andperhaps their ancestors centuries ago owned the city of gold.At any rate I think some of them knew the secret of raising thedoor." And later Tom learned in a roundabout way from the Fogersthat this was so. The father and son had after much hardship joinedforces with Delazes and he, by a promise of the heads of the partyof our friends, and much tobacco, had gained the head-hunters asallies.
On and on sailed the balloon and our friends regained their strengthafter partaking of the nourishing food. They looked at their storeof gold and found it larger than they had thought. Soon they leftfar behind them the great plain of the ruined temple, which, hadthey but known it was a lake now, for the underground river, perhapsby some break in the underground mechanism that controlled it, or abreak in the channel, overflowed and covered temple, plain andunderground city with water many fathoms deep.
"Are we going all the way home in the balloon?" asked Ned on thesecond day of their voyage in the air, when they had stopped to makeslight repairs.
"No, indeed," replied Tom. "As soon as we get to some city where wecan pack it up, and ship our gold without fear of being robbed, I'mcoming to earth, and go home in a steamer."
This plan was carried out; and a week later, with the gold safelyinsured by an express company, and the balloon packed fortransportation, our friends went to a railroad station, and took atrain for Tampico, there to get a steamer for New York.
"Bless my top knot!" exclaimed Mr. Damon a few days after this, asthey were on the vessel. "I think for queer adventures this one ofours in the city of gold, Tom, puts it all over the others we had."
"Oh, I don't know," answered the young inventor, "we certainly hadsome strenuous times in the past, and I hope we'll have some more inthe future."
"The same here," agreed Ned.
And whether they did or not I will leave my readers to judge if theyperuse the next book in this series, which will be called, "TomSwift and His Air Glider; Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure."
They arrived safely in Shopton in due course of time, and found Mr.Swift well. They did not become millionaires, for they found, totheir regret that their gold was rather freely alloyed with basermetals, so they did not have more than half the amount in pure solidgold. But there was a small fortune in it for all of them.
In recognition of Mr. Illingway, the African missionary having putTom on the track of the gold, a large sum was sent to him, to helphim carry on his work of humanity.
Tom had many offers for the big golden head, but he would not sellit, though he loaned it to a New York museum, where it attractedmuch attention. There were many articles written about theunderground city of gold from the facts the young inventorfurnished.
Eventually the Fogers got home, but they did not say much abouttheir experiences, and Tom and his friends did not think it worthwhile to prosecute them for the attack. As for Delazes, Tom neversaw nor heard from him again, not in all his reading could he findany account of the head-hunters, who must have been a small, littleknown tribe.
"And you really kept your promise, and brought me a golden image?"asked Mary Nestor of Tom, when he ca
lled on her soon after reachinghome.
"Indeed I did, the two that I promised and a particularly fine onethat I picked up almost at the last minute," and Tom gave her thevaluable relics.
"And now tell me about it," she begged, when she had admired them,and then sat down beside Tom: and there we will leave our hero forthe present, as he is in very good company, and I know he wouldn'tlike to be disturbed.
THE END
Tom Swift in the City of Gold; Or, Marvelous Adventures Underground Page 25
