Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel; Or, The Hidden City of the Andes

by Victor Appleton

  Chapter VI

  Mr. Nestor's Letter

  "Got t' git a good strong box fo' dish yeah," murmured Eradicate, as helooked at the beautiful mahogany present Tom had turned over to him totake to Mary. "Mah Landy! Dat suttinly am nice; Ah! Um! Jest laik someob de old mahogany furniture dat was in our fambily down Souf."Eradicate did not mean his family, exactly, but the one in which he hadbeen a slave.

  "Yassum, dat shore am nice!" he went on, talking to himself as headmired the present. "I shore got t' put dat in a good box! An' dishyear note, too. Let's see what it done say on de outside."

  Eradicate held the envelope carefully upside down, and read--or ratherpretended to read--the name and address. Eradicate knew well enoughwhere Mary lived, for this was not the first time he had gone therewith messages from his young master.

  "Massa Tom shore am a fine writer," mused the negro, as he slowlyturned the envelope around. "I cain't read nobody's writin' but hisen,nohow."

  Had Eradicate been strictly honest with himself, he would haveconfessed that he could not read any writing, or printing either. Hiseducation had been very limited, but one could show him, say, a printedsign and tell him it read "Danger" or "Five miles to Branchville," oranything like that, and the next time he saw it, Eradicate would knowwhat that sign said. He seemed to fix a picture of it in his mind,though the letters and figures by themselves meant nothing to him. Sowhen Tom told him the envelope contained the name and address of MissNestor, Eradicate needed nothing more.

  He rummaged about in some odds and ends in the corner of thelaboratory, and brought out a strong, wooden box, which had a coverthat screwed down.

  "Dat'll be de ticket!" Eradicate exclaimed. "De mahogany present willjest fit." Eradicate took some excelsior to pad the box, and then,dropping inside it the gift, already wrapped in tissue paper, heproceeded to screw on the cover.

  There was something printed in red letters on the outside box, butEradicate could not read, so it did not trouble him.

  "Dat Miss Nestor shore will laik her present," he murmured. "An' I'llbe mighty keerful ob it' laik Massa Tom tole me. He wouldn't trust datbig lummox Koku wif anyt'ing laik dis."

  Screwing on the cover, and putting a piece of wrapping paper outsidethe rough, wooden box, with the letter in his hand, Eradicate, full ofhis own importance, set off for Miss Nestor's house. Tom had notreturned from the telephone, over which he was talking to Mr. Titus.

  The message was an important one. The contractor said he had receivedword from his brother in Peru that his presence was urgently neededthere.

  "Could you arrange to get off sooner than we planned, Tom?" asked Mr.Titus. "I am afraid something has happened down there. Have you sentthe first shipment of explosive?"

  "Yes, that went three days ago. It ought to arrive at Lima soon afterwe do. Why yes, I can start to-night if we have to. I'll find out ifMr. Damon can be with us on such short notice."

  "I wish you would," came from Mr. Titus. "And say, Tom, do you thinkyou could take that giant Koku with you?"

  "Why?"

  "Well, I think he'd come in handy. There are some pretty roughcharacters in those Andes Mountains, and your big friend might beuseful."

  "All right. I was thinking of it, anyhow. Glad you mentioned it. NowI'll call up Mr. Damon, and I'll let you know, in an hour or so, if hecan make it."

  "Bless my hair brush, yes, Tom!" exclaimed the eccentric man, when toldof the change in plans. "I can leave to-night as well as not."

  Word to this effect was sent on to Mr. Titus, and then began somehurrying on the part of Tom Swift. He told Koku to get ready to leavefor New York at once, where he and the giant would join Mr. Titus andMr. Damon, and start across the continent to take for steamer for Lima,Peru.

  "Rad, did you send that present to Miss Nestor?" asked Tom, later, ashe finished packing his grip.

  "Yas, sah. I done did it. Took it mase'f!"

  "That's good! I guess I'll have to say good-bye to Mary over thetelephone. I won't have time to call. I'm glad I thought of thepresent."

  Tom got the Nestor house on the wire. But Mary was not in.

  "There's a package here for her," said the girl's mother. "Did you--?"

  "Yes, I sent that," Tom said. "Sorry I won't be able to call and saygood-bye, but I'm in a terrible rush. I'll see her as soon as I getback, and I'll write as soon as I arrive."

  "Do," urged Mrs. Nestor. "We'll all be glad to hear from you," for Tomand Mary were tentatively engaged to be married.

  Tom and Koku went on with their hurried preparations to leave for NewYork. Eradicate begged to be taken along, but Tom gently told thefaithful old servant that it was out of the question.

  "Besides, Rad," he said, "it's dangerous in those Andes Mountains. Why,they have birds there, as big as cows, and they can swoop down andcarry off a man your size."

  "Am dat shorely so, Massa Tom?"

  "Of course it is! You get the dictionary and read about the condors ofthe Andes Mountains."

  "Dat's what I'll do, Massa Tom. Birds as big as cows what kin pick up aman in dere beaks, an' carry him off! Oh, my! No, sah, Massa Tom! Idon't want t' go. I'll stay right yeah!"

  Shortly before Tom and Koku departed for the railroad station, wherethey were to take a train for New York, Mary Nestor returned home.

  "Tom called you on the telephone to say good-bye," her mother informedher, "and said he was sorry he could not see you. But he sent some sortof gift."

  "Oh, how sweet of him!" Mary exclaimed. "Where is it?"

  "On the dining room table. Eradicate brought it with a note."

  Mary read the note first.

  In it Tom begged Mary to accept the little token, and to think of himwhen she used it.

  "Oh! I wonder what it can be," she cried in delight.

  "Better open it and see," advised Mr. Nestor, who had come in at thatmoment.

  Mary cut the string of the outside paper, and folded back the wrapper.A wooden box was exposed to view, a solid, oblong, wooden box, and onthe top, in bold, red letters Mary, her father and her mother read:

  DYNAMITE! HANDLE WITH CARE!

  "Oh! Oh!" murmured Mrs. Nestor.

  "Dynamite! Handle with care!" repeated Mr. Nestor, in a sort of dazedvoice. "Quick! Get a pail of water! Dump it in the bathtub! Soak itgood, and then telephone for the police. Dynamite! What does this mean?"

  He rushed toward the kitchen, evidently with the intention of getting apail of water, but Mary clasped him by the arm.

  "Father!" she exclaimed. "Don't get so excited!"

  "Excited!" he cried. "Who's excited? Dynamite! We'll all be blown up!This is some plot! I don't believe Tom sent this at all! Look out! Callthe police! Excited! Who's getting excited?"

  "You are, Daddy dear!" said Mary calmly. "This is some mistake. Tom didsend this--I know his writing. And wasn't it Eradicate who brought thispackage, Mother?"

  "Yes, my dear. But your father is right. Let him put it in water, thenit will be safe. Oh, we'll all be blown up. Get the water!"

  "No!" cried Mary. "There is some mistake. Tom wouldn't send medynamite. There must be a present for me in there. Tom must have putit in the wrong box by mistake. I'm going to open it."

  Mary's calmness had its effect on her parents. Mr. Nestor cooled down,as did his wife, and a closer examination of the outer box did not seemto show that it was an infernal machine of any kind.

  "It's all a mistake, Daddy," Mary said. "I'll show you. Get me a screwdriver."

  After some delay one was found, and Mr. Nestor himself opened the box.When the tissue paper wrappings of the mahogany gift were revealed hegave a sigh of relief, and when Mary undid the wrappings, and saw whatTom had sent her, she cried:

  "Oh, how perfectly dear! Just what I wanted! I wonder how he knew? Oh,I just love it!" and she hugged the beautiful box in her arms.

  "Humph!" exclaimed Mr. Nestor, a slowly gathering light of angershowing in his eyes. "It is a nice present, but that is a very poorsort of joke to play, in my e
stimation."

  "Joke! What joke?" asked Mary.

  "Putting a present in a box labeled Dynamite, and giving us such ascare," went on her father.

  "Oh, Father, I'm sure he didn't mean to do it!" Mary said, earnestly.

  "Well, maybe he didn't! He may have thought it a joke, and he may nothave! But, at any rate, it was a piece of gross carelessness on hispart, and I don't care to consider for a son-in-law a young man ascareless as that!"

  "Oh, Daddy!" expostulated Mary.

  "Now, now! Tut, tut!" exclaimed Mr. Nestor. "It isn't your fault, Mary,but this Tom Swift must be taught a lesson. He was careless, if nothingworse, and, for all he knew, there might have been some stray bits ofdynamite in that packing box. It won't do! It won't do! I'll write hima letter, and give him a piece of my mind!"

  And in spite of all his wife and his daughter could say, Mr. Nestor didwrite Tom a scathing letter. He accused him of either perpetrating ajoke, or of being careless, or both, and he intimated that the less hesaw of Tom at the Nestor home hereafter the better pleased he would be.

  "There! I guess that will make him wish he hadn't done it!" exclaimedMr. Nestor, as he called a messenger and sent the letter to Tom's house.

  Mary and her mother did not know the contents of the note, but Marytried to get Tom on the wire and explain. However, she was unable toreach him, as Tom was on the point of leaving.

  The messenger, with Mr. Nestor's letter, arrived just as our hero wasreceiving the late afternoon mail from the postman, and just as Tom andKoku were getting in an automobile to leave for the depot.

  "Good-bye, Dad!" Tom called. "Good-bye, Mrs. Baggert!" He thrust Mr.Nestor's letter, unopened, together with some other mail matter, whichhe took to be merely circulars, into an inner pocket, and jumped intothe car.

  Tom and Koku were off on the first stage of their journey.