ENTOMBED ALIVE
For an instant Tom and his friends paused at the entrance to the
wonderful cavern, and looked at the raging storm. It seemed madness to
venture out into it, yet they had been driven from the cave by those
who had every right of discovery to say who, and who should not,
partake of its hospitality.
"We can't go out into that blow!" cried Ned. "It's enough to loosen
the very mountains!"
"Let's stay here and defy them!" murmured Tom. "If the--if what we
seek--is here we have as good a right to it as they have."
"We must go out," said Professor Bumper simply. "I recognize the right
of my rival to dispossess us."
"He may have the right, but it isn't human," said Mr. Damon. "Bless my
overshoes! If Beecher himself were here he wouldn't have the heart to
send us out in this storm."
"I would not give him the satisfaction of appealing to him," remarked
Professor Bumper. "Come, we will go out. We have our ponchos, and we
are not fair-weather explorers. If we can't get to the lost city one
way we will another. Come my friends."
And despite the downpour, the deafening thunder and the lightning that
seemed ready to sear one's eyes, he walked out of the cave entrance,
followed by Tom and the others.
"Come on!" cried Tom, in a voice he tried to render confident, as they
went out into the terrible storm. "We'll beat 'em yet!"
The rain fell harder than ever. Small torrents were now rushing down
the trail, and it was only a question of a few minutes before the place
where they stood would be a raging river, so quickly does the rain
collect in the mountains and speed toward the valleys.
"We must take to the forest!" cried Tom. "There'll be some shelter
there, and I don't like the way the geography of this place is
behaving. There may be a landslide at any moment."
As he spoke he motioned upward through the mist of the rain to the
sloping side of the mountain towering above them. Loose stones were
beginning to roll down, accompanied by patches of earth loosened by the
water. Some of the patches carried with them bunches of grass and
small bushes.
"Yes, it will be best to move into the jungle," said the professor.
"Goosal, you had better take the lead."
It was wonderful to see how well the aged Indian bore up in spite of
his years, and walked on ahead. They had left their mules tethered
some distance back, in a sheltering clump of trees, and they hoped the
animals would be safe.
The guide found a place where they could leave the trail, though going
down a dangerous slope, and take to the forest. As carefully as
possible they descended this, the rain continuing to fall, the wind to
blow, the lightning to sizzle all about them and the thunder to boom in
their ears.
They went on until they were beneath the shelter of the thick jungle
growth of trees, which kept off some of the pelting drops.
"This is better!" exclaimed Ned, shaking his poncho and getting rid of
some of the water that had settled on it.
"Bless my overcoat!" cried Mr. Damon. "We seem to have gotten out of
the frying pan into the fire!"
"How?" asked Tom. "We are partly sheltered here, though had we stayed
in the cave in spite of----"
A deafening crash interrupted him, and following the flash one of the
giant trees of the forest was seen to blaze up and then topple over.
"Struck by lightning!" yelled Ned.
"Yes; and it may happen to us!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "We were safer
from the lightning in the open. Maybe----"
Again came an interruption, but this time a different one. The very
ground beneath their feet seemed to be shaking and trembling.
"What is it?" gasped Ned, while Goosal fell on his knees and began
fervently to pray.
"It's an earthquake!" yelled Tom Swift.
As he spoke there came another sound--the sound of a mass of earth in
motion. It came from the direction of the mountain trail they had just
left. They looked toward it and their horror-stricken eyes saw the
whole side of the mountain sliding down.
Slowly at first the earth slid down, but constantly gathering force and
speed. In the face of this new disaster the rain seemed to have ceased
and the thunder and lightning to be less severe. It was as though one
force of nature gave way to the other.
"Look! Look!" gasped Ned.
In silence, which was broken now only by a low and ominous rumble, more
menacing than had been the awful fury of the elements, the travelers
looked.
Suddenly there was a quicker movement of seemingly one whole section of
the mountain. Great rocks and trees, carried down by the appalling
force of the landslide were slipping over the trail, obliterating it as
though it had never existed.
"There goes the entrance to the cavern!" cried Ned, and as the others
looked to where he pointed they saw the hole in the side of the
mountain--the mouth of the cave that led to the lost city of
Kurzon--completely covered by thousands of tons of earth and stones.
"That's the end of them!" exclaimed Tom, as the rumble of the
earthquake died away.
"Of----" Ned stopped, his eyes staring.
"Of Professor Beecher's party. They're entombed alive!"