第43章

"That's right.It's just as well to let the natives think we are only after ordinary relics.""Bless my insurance policy!" gasped Mr.Damon."It does not seem possible that we are on the right track.""Well, I think we are, from what little information Goosal gave us," remarked Tom."This buried city of his must be a wonderful place.""It is, if it is what I take it to be," agreed the professor."I told you Iwould bring you to a land of wonders, Tom Swift, and they have hardly begun yet.Come, I am anxious to talk to Goosal."In order that the Indians in the Bumper camp might not hear rumors of the new plan to locate the hidden city, and, at the same time, to keep rumors from spreading to the camp of the rivals, the scientist and his friends started a new shaft, and put a shift of men at work on it.

"We'll pretend we are on the right track, and very busy," said Tom."That will fool Beecher.""Are you glad to know he did not take your map Professor Bumper?" asked Mr.Damon.

"Well, yes.It is hard to believe such things of a fellow scientist.""If he didn't take it he wanted to," said Tom."And he has done, or will do, things as unsportsmanlike.""Oh, you are hardly fair, perhaps, Tom," commented Ned."Um!" was all the answer he received.

With the Indians in camp busy on the excavation work, and having ascertained that similar work was going on in the Beecher outfit, Professor Bumper, with Mr.Damon and the young men, set off to visit the Indian village and listen to Goosal's story.They passed the place where Tom had slain the jaguar, but nothing was left but the bones; the ants, vultures and jungle animals having picked them clean in the night.

On the arrival of Tom and his friends at the Indian's hut, Goosal told, in language which Professor Bumper could understand, the ancient legend of the buried city as he had had it from his grandfather.

"But is that all you know about it, Goosal?" asked the savant.

"No, Learned One.It is true most of what I have told you was told to me by my father and his father's father.But I--I myself--with these eyes, have looked upon the lost city.""You have!" cried the professor, this time in English."Where? When? Take us to it! How do you get here?""Through the cavern of the dead," was the answer when the questions were modified.

"Bless my diamond ring!" exclaimed Mr.Damon, when Professor Bumper translated the reply."What does he mean?"And then, after some talk, this information came out.Years before, when Goosal was a young man, he had been taken by his grandfather on a journey through the jungle.They stopped one day at the foot of a high mountain, and, clearing away the brush and stones at a certain place, an entrance to a great cavern was revealed.This, it appeared, was the Indian burial ground, and had been used for generations.

Goosal, though in fear and trembling, was lead through it, and came to another cavern, vaster than the first.And there he saw strange and wonderful sights, for it was the remains of a buried city, that had once been the home of a great and powerful tribe unlike the Indians--the ancient Mayas it would seem.

"Can you take us to this cavern?" asked the professor.

"Yes," answered Goosal."I will lead to it those who saved the life of Tal--them and their friends.I will take you to the lost city!""Good!" cried Mr.Damon, when this had been translated."Now let Beecher try to play any more tricks on us! Ho! for the cavern and the lost city of Kurzon.""And the idol of gold," said Tom Swift to himself."I hope we can get it ahead of Beecher.Perhaps if I can help in that--Oh, well, here's hoping, that's all!" and a little smile curved his lips.

Greatly excited by the strange news, but maintaining as calm an air outwardly as possible, so as not to excite the Indians, Tom and his friends returned to camp to prepare for their trip.Goosal had said the cavern lay distant more than a two- days' journey into the jungle.