第34章

"Now, gentlemen," said the professor, "I have called you here to go over my plans more in detail than I have hitherto done, now we are on the ground.You know in a general way what I hope to accomplish, but the time has come when I must be specific.

"Aside from being on the spot, below which, or below the vicinity where, I believe, lies the lost city of Kurzon and, I hope, the idol of gold, a situation has arisen--an unexpected situation, I may say--which calls for different action from that I had counted on.

"I refer to the presence of my rival, Professor Beecher.I will not dwell now on what he has done.It is better to consider what he may do." "That's right," agreed Ned."He may get up in the night, dig up thiscity and skip with that golden image before we know it." "Hardly," grinned Tom.

"No," said Professor Bumper."Excavating buried cities in the jungle of Honduras is not as simple as that.There is much work to be done.But accidents may happen, and in case one should occur to me, and I be unable to prosecute the search, I want one of you to do it.For that reason I am going to show you the maps and ancient documents and point out to you where I believe the lost city lies.Now, if you will give me your attention, I'll proceed."The professor went over in detail the story of how he had found the old documents relating to the lost city of Kurzon, and of how, after much labor and research, he had located the city in the Copan valley.The great idol of gold was one of the chief possessions of Kurzon, and it was often referred to in the old papers; copies and translations of which the professor had with him.

"But this is the most valuable of all," he said, as he opened an oiled- silk packet."And before I show it to you, suppose you two young mentake a look outside the tent." "What for?" asked Mr.Damon.

"To make sure that no emissaries from the Beecher crowd are sneaking around to overhear what we say," was the somewhat bitter answer of the scientist."I do not trust him, in spite of his attempted denial."Tom and Ned took a quick but thorough observation outside the tent.The blackness of the jungle night was in strange contrast to the light they had just left.

"Doesn't seem to be any one around here," remarked Ned, after waiting a minute or two.

"No.All's quiet along the Potomac.Those Beecher natives are having some sort of a song- fest, though."In the distance, and from the direction of their rivals' camp, came the weird chant.

"Well, as long as they stay there we'll be all right," said Tom."Come on in.I'm anxious to hear what the professor has to say.""Everything's quiet," reported Ned.

"Then give me your attention," begged the scientist.

Carefully, as though about to exhibit some, precious jewel, he loosened the oiled-silk wrappings and showed a large map, on thin but tough paper.

"This is drawn from the old charts," the professor explained."I worked on it many months, and it is the only copy in the world.If it were to be destroyed I should have to go all the way back to New York to make another copy.I have the original there in a safe deposit vault.""Wouldn't it have been wise to make two copies?" asked Tom.

"It would have only increased the risk.With one copy, and that constantly in my possession, I can be sure of my ground.Otherwise not.That is why I am so careful of this.Now I will show you why I believe we are about over the ancient city of Kurzon.""Over it!" cried Mr.Damon."Bless my gunpowder! What do you mean?" and he looked down at the earthen floor of the tent as though expecting it to open and swallow him.

"I mean that the city, like many others of Central and South America,is buried below the refuse of centuries," went on the professor."Very soon, if we are fortunate, we shall be looking on the civilization of hundreds of years ago--how long no one knows.