第16章

Tom did not have to answer that last question.Into the apartment came bursting the excited individual himself.

"Bless my overshoes!" he cried, "I've been looking everywhere for you! Come on, there's no time to lose!""What's the matter now?" asked Ned."Is the hotel on fire?""Has anything happened to Professor Bumper?" Tom demanded, a wild idea forming in his head that perhaps some one of the Beecher party had tried to kidnap the discoverer of the lost city of Pelone.

"Oh, everything is all right," answered Mr.Damon."But it's nearly time for the show to start, and we don't want to be late.I have tickets.""For what?" asked Tom and Ned together.

"The movies," was the laughing reply."Bless my loose ribs! but I wouldn't miss him for anything.He's in a new play called `Up in a Balloon Boys.' It's great!" and Mr.Damon named a certain comic moving picture star in whose horse-play Mr.Damon took a curious interest.Tom and Ned were glad enough to go, Tom that he might have a chance to do a certain amount of thinking, and Ned because he was still boy enough to like moving pictures.

"I wonder, Tom," said Mr.Damon, as they came out of the theater two hours later, all three chuckling at the remembrance of what they had seen, "I wonder you never turned your inventive mind to the movies." "Maybe I will, some day," said Tom.

He spoke rather uncertainly.The truth of the matter was that he was still thinking deeply of the visit of Professor Beecher to Mary Nestor, and wondering what it portended.

But if Tom's sleep was troubled that night he said nothing of it to his friends.He was up early the next morning, for they were to leave that day, and there was still considerable to be done in seeing that their baggage and supplies were safely loaded, and in attending to the last details of some business matters.

While at the hotel they had several glimpses of the members of the Beecher party who were awaiting the arrival of the young professor who was to lead them into the wilds of Honduras.But our friends did not seek the acquaintance of their rivals.The latter, likewise, remained by themselves, though they knew doubtless that there was likely to be a strenuous race for the possession of the idol of gold, then, it was presumed, buried deep in some forest-covered city.

Professor Bumper had made his arrangements carefully.As he explained to his friends, they would take the steamer from New York to Puerto Cortes, one of the principal seaports of Honduras.This is a town of about three thousand inhabitants, with an excellent harbor and a big pier along which vessels can tie up and discharge their cargoes directly into waiting cars.

The preparations were finally completed.The party went aboard the steamer, which was a large freight vessel, carrying a limited number ofpassengers, and late one afternoon swung down New York Bay.

"Off for Honduras!" cried Ned gaily, as they passed the Statue of Liberty."I wonder what will happen before we see that little lady again." "Who knows?" asked Tom, shrugging his shoulders, Spanish fashion.

And there came before him the vision of a certain "little lady," about whom he had been thinking deeply of late.