THE CAVERN
"Now Goosal can tell you," said Tal, evidently pleased that he had, in
a measure, solved the problem caused by the burning of the professor's
map. "Goosal very old Indian. He know old stories--legends--very old."
"Well, if he can tell us how to find the buried city of Kurzon and
the--the things in it," said Tom, "he's all right!"
The aged Indian proceeded slowly toward the hut where the impatient
youths awaited him.
"I know what you seek in the buried city," remarked Tal.
"Do you?" cried Tom, wondering if some one had indiscreetly spoken of
the idol of gold.
"Yes you want pieces of rock, with strange writings on them, old
weapons, broken pots. I know. I have helped white men before."
"Yes, those are the things we want," agreed Tom, with a glance at his
chum. "That is--some of them. But does your wife's grandfather talk
our language?"
"No, but I can tell you what he says."
By this time the old man, led by "Mrs. Tal"--as the young men called
the wife of the Indian they had helped--entered the hut. He seemed
nervous and shy, and glanced from Tom and Ned to his grandson-in-law,
as the latter talked rapidly in the Indian dialect. Then Goosal made
answer, but what it was all about the boys could not tell.
"Goosal say," translated Tal, "that he know a story of a very old city
away down under ground."
"Tell us about it!" urged Tom eagerly.
But a difficulty very soon developed. Tal's intentions were good, but
he was not equal to the task of translating. Nor was the understanding
of Tom and Ned of Spanish quite up to the mark.
"Say, this is too much for me!" exclaimed Tom. "We are losing the most
valuable part of this by not understanding what Goosal says, and what
Tal translates."
"What can we do?" asked Ned.
"Get the professor here as soon as possible. He can manage this
dialect, and he'll get the information at first hand. If Goosal can
tell where to begin excavating for the city he ought to tell the
professor, not us."
"That's right," agreed Ned. "We'll bring the professor here as soon as
we can."
Accordingly they stopped the somewhat difficult task of listening to
the translated story and told Tal, as well as they could, that they
would bring the "man-with-no-hair-on-his-head" to listen to the tale.
This seemed to suit the Indians, all of whom in the small colony
appeared to be very grateful to Tom and Ned for having saved the life
of Tal.
"That was a good shot you made when you bowled over the jaguar," said
Ned, as the two young explorers started back to their camp.
"Better than I realized, if it leads to the discovery of Kurzon and the
idol of gold," remarked Tom.
"And to think we should come across the oiled-silk holding the poisoned
arrows!" went on Ned. "That's the strangest part of the whole affair.
If it hadn't been that you shot the jaguar this never would have come
about."
That Professor Bumper was astonished, and Mr. Damon likewise, when they
heard the story of Tom and Ned, is stating it mildly.
"Come on!" exclaimed the scientist, as Tom finished, "we must see this
Goosal at once. If my map is destroyed, and it seems to be, this old
Indian may be our only hope. Where did he say the buried city was,
Tom?"
"Oh, somewhere in this vicinity, as nearly as I could make out. But
you'd better talk with him yourself. We didn't say anything about the
idol of gold."
"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 I would 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.