"BEWARE THE HEAD-HUNTERS!"
"That's what I want!" exclaimed the young inventor, as he finished
the perusal of the missionary's missive.
"What is it?" asked Mr. Swift, entering the shop at that moment.
"News from Africa, dad. Mr. Illingway went to a lot of trouble to
get more information for us about the city of gold, and he sends a
better map. It seems there was one among the effects of the white
man who died near where Mr. Illingway has his mission. With this
map, and what additional information I have, we ought to locate the
underground city. Look, dad," and the lad showed the map.
"Humph!" exclaimed Mr. Swift with a smile. "I don't call that a very
clear map. It shows a part of Central Mexico, that's true, but it's
on such a small scale I don't see how you're going to tell anything
by it."
"But I have a description," explained Tom. "It seems according to
Mr. Illingway's letter, that you have to go to the coast and strike
into the interior until you are near the old city of Poltec. That
used to be it's name, but Mr. Illingway says it may be abandoned
now, or the name changed. But I guess we can find it."
"Then, according to what he could learn from the African natives,
who talked with the white man, the best way is to hire ox carts and
strike into the jungle. That's the only way to carry our baggage,
and the dirigible balloon which I'm going to take along."
"Pretty uncertain way to look for a buried city of gold," commented
Mr. Swift. "But I suppose even if you don't find it you'll have the
fun of searching for it, Tom."
"But we ARE going to find it!" the lad declared. "We'll get there,
you'll see!"
"But how are you going to know it when you see it?" asked his
father. "If it's underground even a balloon won't help you much."
"It's true it is underground," agreed Tom, "but there must be an
entrance to it somewhere, and I'm going to hunt for that entrance.
Mr. Illingway writes that the city is a very old one, and was built
underground by the priests of some people allied to the Aztecs. They
wanted a refuge in times of war and they also hid their valuables
there. They must have been rich to have so much gold, or else they
didn't value it as we do."
"That might be so," assented Mr. Swift. "But I still maintain, Tom,
that it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"Still, I'm going to have a try for it," asserted the lad. "If I can
once locate the plain of the big temple I'll be near the entrance to
the underground city."
"What is the 'plain of the big temple,' Tom?"
"Mr. Illingway writes," said the lad, again referring to the letter,
"that somewhere near the beginning of the tunnel that leads into the
city of gold, there is an immense flat plain, on which the ancient
Aztecs once built a great temple. Maybe they worshiped the golden
images there. Anyhow the temple is in ruins now, near an overgrown
jungle, according to the stories the white man used to tell. He once
got as near the city of gold as the big temple, but hostile natives
drove him and his party back. Then he went to Africa after getting
an image from someone, and died there. So no one since has ever
found the city of gold."
"Well, I hope you do, Tom, but I doubt it. However, I suppose you
will hurry your preparations for going away, now that you have all
the information you can get."
"Right, dad. I must send word to Mr. Damon and Ned at once. A few
more days' work, and my balloon will be in shape for a trial flight,
and then I can take it apart, pack it up, and ship it. Then ho! for
the city of gold!"
Mr. Swift smiled at his son's enthusiasm, but he did not check it.
He knew Tom too well for that.
Naturally Mr. Damon and Ned were delighted with the additional
information the missionary had sent, and Ned agreed with Tom that it
was a mere matter of diligent search to find the underground city.
"Bless my collar button!" cried Mr. Damon. "It may not be as easy as
all that, but Tom Swift isn't the kind that gives up! We'll get
there!"
Meanwhile Tom worked diligently on his balloon. He sent a letter of
thanks to Mr. Illingway, at the same time requesting that if any
more information was obtained within the next three weeks to cable
it, as there would not be time for a letter to reach Shopton ere Tom
planned to leave for Mexico.
The following days were busy ones for all. There was much to be
done, and Tom worked night and day. They had to get rifles ready,
for they might meet hostile natives. Then, too, they had to arrange
for the proper clothing, and other supplies.
To take apart and ship the balloon was no small task, and then there
were the passages to engage on a steamer that would land them at the
nearest point to strike into the interior, the question of
transportation after reaching Mexico, and many other matters to
consider.
But gradually things began to shape themselves and it looked as
though the expedition could start for the city of gold in about two
weeks after the receipt of the second letter from the missionary.
"I think I'll give the balloon a trial to-morrow," said Tom one
night, after a hard day's work, "It's all ready, and it ought to
work pretty good. It will be just what we need to sail over some
dense jungle and land down on the plain by the great temple."
"Bless my slippers!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I must think up some way
of telling my wife that I'm going."
"Haven't you told her yet?" asked Ned.
The eccentric man shook his head.
"I haven't had a good chance," he said, "but I think I'll tell her
to-morrow, and promise her one of the gold images. Then she won't
mind."
Tom was just a little bit nervous when he got ready for a trial
flight in the new dirigible balloon. To tell the truth he much
preferred aeroplanes to balloons, but he realized that in a country
where the jungle growth prevailed, and where there might be no level
places to get a "take off," or a starting place for an aeroplane,
the balloon was more feasible.
But he need have had no fears, for the balloon worked perfectly. In
the bag Tom used a new gas, much more powerful even than hydrogen,
and which he could make from chemicals that could easily be carried
on their trip.
The air craft was small but powerful, and could easily carry Tom,
Ned and Mr. Damon, together with a quantity of food and other
supplies. They intended to use it by starting from the place where
they would leave the most of their baggage, after getting as near to
the city of gold as they could by foot trails. Tom hoped to
establish a camp in the interior of Mexico, and make trips off in
different directions to search for the ruined temple. If
unsuccessful they could sail back each night, and if he should
discover the entrance to the buried city there was food enough in
the car of the balloon to enable them to stay away from camp for a
week or more.
In order to give the balloon a good test, Tom took up with him not
only Ned and Mr. Damon, but Eradicate and Mr. Swift to equalize the
weight of food and supplies that later would be carried. The test
showed that the craft more than came up to expectations, though the
trial trip was a little marred by the nervousness of the colored
man.
"I doan't jest laik dis yeah kind of travelin'," said Eradicate.
"I'd radder be on de ground."
Most of the remaining two weeks were spent in packing the balloon
for shipment, and then the travelers got their own personal
equipment ready. They put up some condensed food, but they depended
on getting the major portion in Mexico.
It was two days before they were to start. Their passage had been
engaged on a steamer, and the balloon and most of their effects had
been shipped. Mr. Damon had broken the news to his wife, and she had
consented to allow him to go, though she said it would be for the
last time.
"But if I bring her back a nice, big, gold image I know she'll let
me go on other trips with you, Tom." said the eccentric man. "Bless
my yard stick, if I couldn't go off on an adventure now and then I
don't know what I'd do."
They were in the library of the Swift home that evening. Tom, Ned,
Mr. Damon and the aged inventor, and of course the only thing talked
of was the prospective trip to the city of gold.
"What I can't understand," Mr. Swift was saying, "is why the natives
made so many of the same images of gold, and why there is that large
one in the underground place. What did they want of it?"
"That's part of the mystery we hope to solve," said Tom. "I'm going
to bring that big image home with me if I can. I guess--"
He was interrupted by a ring at the front door.
"I hope that isn't Andy Foger," remarked Ned.
"No danger," replied Tom. "He'll keep away from here after what he
did to my aeroplane."
Mrs. Baggert went to the door.
"A message for you, Tom," she announced a little later, handing in
an envelope.
"Hello, a cablegram!" exclaimed the young inventor. "It must be from
Mr. Illingway, in Africa. It is," he added a moment later as he
glanced at the signature.
"What does he say?" asked Mr. Swift.
"Can he give us any more definite information about the city of
gold?" inquired Ned.
"I'll read it," said Tom, and there was a curious, strained note in
his voice. "This is what it says:"
"'No more information obtainable. But if you go to the city of gold
beware of the head-hunters!'"
"Head-hunters!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "Bless my top-knot, what are
they?"
"I don't know," answered Tom simply, "but whatever they are we've
got to be on the lookout for them when we get to the gold city, and
that's where I'm going, head-hunters or no head-hunters!"