Despair
Calling to a girl of about thirteen years to look after her baby, Masni
slipped along up a rough mountain trail, motioning to Tom, Mr. Damon
and Koku to follow. Or rather, the woman gave the sign to Tom, ignoring
the others, who, naturally, would not be left behind. Masni seemed to
have eyes for no one but the young inventor, and the manner in which
she looked at him showed the deep gratitude she felt toward him for
having saved her baby from the great condor.
"Come," she said, in her strange Indian tongue, which Tom could
interpret well enough for himself now.
"But where are we going, Masni?" he asked. "This isn't the way to the
tunnel."
"Me know. Not go to tunnel now," was her answer. "Me show you men."
"But which men do you mean, Masni?" inquired Tom. "The lost men, or the
bad ones, who are making trouble for us? Which men do you mean?"
Masni only shook her head, and murmured: "Me show."
Probably Tom's attempt to talk her language was not sufficiently clear
to her.
"My man--he good man," she said, coming to a pause on the rough trail
after a climb which was not easy.
"Yes, I know he is," Tom said. "But he went on a strike with the
others, Masni. He no work. He go on a 'hit,' as Serato calls it," and
Tom laughed.
"My man he good man--but he 'fraid," said the wife. "He want to tell
you of bad mans, but he 'fraid. You save my baby, I no 'fraid. I tell."
"Oh, I see," said Tom. "Your husband would have given away the secret,
only he's afraid of the bad men. He likes me, too?"
"Sure!" Masni exclaimed. "He want tell, but 'fraid. He go 'way, I tell."
Tom was not quite sure what it all meant, but it seemed that after his
slaying of the condor both parents were so filled with gratitude that
they wanted to reveal some secret about the tunnel, only Masni's
husband was afraid. She, however, had been braver.
"Something is going to happen," said Tom Swift. "I feel it in my bones!"
"Bless my porous plaster!" cried Mr. Damon. "I hope it isn't anything
serious."
"We'll see," Tom went on.
They resumed their journey up the mountain trail. It wound in and out
in a region none of them had before visited. Though it could not be
far from the tunnel, it was almost a strange country to Tom.
Suddenly Masni stopped in a narrow gorge where the walls of rock rose
high on either hand. She seemed looking for something. Her sharp, black
eyes scanned the cliff and then with an exclamation of satisfaction she
approached a certain place. With a quick motion she pulled aside a mass
of tangled vines, and disclosed a path leading down through a V shaped
crack in the cliff.
"Mans down there," she said. "You go look."
For a moment Tom hesitated. Was this a trap? If he and his friends
entered this narrow and dark opening might not the Indian woman roll
down some rock back of them, cutting off forever the way of escape?
Tom turned and looked at Masni. Then he was ashamed of his suspicion,
for the honest black face, smiling at him, showed no trace of guile.
"You go--you see lost men," the woman urged.
"Come on!" cried Tom. "I believe we're on the track of the mystery!"
He led the way, followed by Mr. Damon, while Koku came next and then
Masni. It could be no trap since she entered it herself.
The path widened, but not much. There was only room for one to walk at
a time. The trail twisted and turned, and Tom was wondering how far it
led, when, from behind him, came the cry of the woman:
"Watch now--no fall down."
Tom halted around a sharp turn, and stood transfixed at the sight which
met his gaze. He found himself looking out through a crack in the face
of a sheer stone cliff that went straight down for a hundred feet or
more to a green-carpeted valley.
Tom was standing in a narrow cleft of rock--the same rock through which
they had made their way. And at the foot of the cliff was a little
encampment of Indians. There were a dozen huts, and wandering about
them, or sitting in the shade, were a score or more of Indians.
"There men from tunnel," said Masni, and, as he looked, wondering, Tom
saw some of the workers he knew. One especially, was a laborer who
walked with a peculiar limp.
"The missing men!" gasped the young inventor.
"Bless my almanac!" cried Mr. Damon. "Where?"
"Here," answered Tom. "If you squeeze past me you can see them."
Mr. Damon did so.
"How did they get here?" asked the odd man, as he looked down in the
little valley where the missing ones were sequestered.
"That's what we've got to find out," Tom said. "At any rate here they
are, and they seem to be enjoying life while we've been worrying as to
what had become of them. How did they get here, Masni?"
"Me show you. Come."
"Wait until I take another look," said Tom.
"Be careful they don't see you," cautioned Mr. Damon.
"They can't very well. The cleft is screened by bushes."
Tom looked down once more on the group of men who had so mysteriously
disappeared. The little valley stretched out away from the face of the
cliff, through which, by means of the crack, or cleft in it, Tom and
the others had come. Tom looked down the wall of rock. It was as smooth
as the side of a building, and offered no means of getting down or up.
Doubtless there was an easier entrance to the valley on the other side.
It was like looking down into some vast hall through an upper window or
from a balcony.
"And those men have been in hiding, or been hidden here, ever since
they disappeared from the tunnel," said Mr. Damon.
"It doesn't look as though they were detained by force," Tom remarked.
"I think they are being paid to stay away. How did they get here,
Masni?"
"Me show you. Come!"
They went back along the trail that led through the split in the rock,
until they had come to the place where the natural curtain of vines
concealed the entrance. Tom took particular notice of this place so he
would know it again.
Then Masni led them over the mountain, and this time Tom saw that they
were approaching the tunnel. He recognized some places where he had
taken samples of rock from the outcropping to test the strength of his
explosive.
Reaching a certain wild and desolate place, Masni made a signal of
caution. She seemed to be listening intently. Then, as if satisfied
there was no danger, she parted some bushes and glided in, motioning
the others to follow.
"Now I wonder what's up," Tom mused.
He and the others were soon informed.
Masni stopped in front of a pile of brush. With a few vigorous motions
of her arms she swept it aside and revealed a smooth slab of rock. In
the centre was what seemed to be a block of metal Masni placed her foot
on this and pressed heavily.
And those watching saw a strange thing.
The slab of rock tilted to one side, as if on a pivot, revealing a
square opening which seemed to lead through solid stone. And at the far
end of the opening Tom Swift saw a glimmer of light.
Stooping down, he looked through the hole thus strangely opened and
what he saw caused him to cry out in wonder.
"It's the tunnel!" he cried. "I can look right down into the tunnel.
It's the incandescent lights I see. I can look right at the ledge of
rock where I kept watch that day, and where I saw--where I saw the face
of Waddington!" he cried. "It wasn't a dream after all. This is a
shaft connecting with the tunnel. We didn't discover it because this
rock fits right in the opening in the roof. It must have been there all
the while, and some blast brought it to light. Is this how the men got
out, or were taken out of the tunnel, Masni?" Tom asked.
"This how," said the Indian woman. "See, here rope!"
She pawed aside a mound of earth, and disclosed a rope buried there, a
rope knotted at intervals. This, let down through the hole in the roof
of the tunnel, provided a means of escape, and in such a manner that
the disappearance of the men was most mysterious.
"I see how it is!" cried Tom. "Some one interested, Waddington
probably, who knew about this old secret shaft going down into the
earth, used it as soon as our blasting was opened that far. They got
the men out this way, and hid them in the secret valley."
"But what for?" cried Mr. Damon.
"To cripple us! To cause the strike by making our other workers afraid
of some evil spirit! The men were taken away secretly, and, doubtless,
have been kept in idleness ever since--paid to stay away so the mystery
would be all the deeper. Our rivals finding they couldn't stop us in
any other way have taken our laborers away from us."
"Bless my meal ticket! It does look like that!" cried Mr. Damon.
"Of course that's the secret!" cried Tom. "Blakeson & Grinder, or some
of their tools--probably the bearded man or Waddington--found out about
this shaft which led down into our tunnel. They induced the first ten
men to quit, and when Tim went to get the fuse the rope was let down,
and the men climbed up here, one after the other. Those Indians can
climb like cats. Once the ten were out the shaft was closed with the
rock, and the ten men taken off to the valley to be secreted there.
"The same was done with the next fifteen, and, I suppose, if the strike
hadn't come, more of our workers would have been induced to leave in
this way. They're probably being better paid than when earning their
wages; and their relatives must know where they are, and also be given
a bonus to keep still. No wonder they didn't make a fuss.
"And no wonder we couldn't find any opening in the tunnel roof. This
rock must fit in as smoothly as a secret drawer in the kind of old desk
where missing wills are found in stories."
"You say you saw Waddington, or the bearded man?" asked Mr. Damon.
"At the time," replied Tom, "I thought it was a dream. Now I know it
wasn't. He must have opened the shaft just as I awakened from a doze.
He saw me and closed it again. He may have been getting ready then to
take off more of our men, so as to scare the others. Well, we've found
out the trick."
"And what are you going to do next?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Get those missing men back. That will break the hoodoo, and the others
will come back to work. Then we'll get on the trail of Waddington, or
Blakeson & Grinder, and put a stop to this business. We know their
secret now."
"You mean to get the men out of the secret valley, Tom?"
"Yes. There must be some other way into it than down the rock where we
were. How about it, Masni?" and he inquired as to the valley. The
Indian woman gave Tom to understand that there was another entrance.
"Well, close up this shaft now before some one sees us at it--the
bearded man, for example," Tom suggested. He took another look down
into the tunnel, which was now deserted on account of the strike, and
then Masni pressed on the mechanism that worked the stone. She showed
Tom how to do it.
"Just a counter-balanced rock operating on the same principle as does a
window," Tom explained, after a brief examination. "Probably some of
the old Indian tribes made this shaft for ceremonial purposes. They
never dreamed we would drive a tunnel along at the bottom of it. The
shaft probably opened into a cave, and one of our blasts made it part
of the tunnel. Well, this is part of the secret, anyhow. Much obliged
to you, Masni!"
The Indian woman had indeed revealed valuable information. They
covered the secret rock with brush, as it had been, hid the rope and
came away. But Tom knew how to find the place again.
Events moved rapidly from then on. The Titus brothers were more than
astonished when Tom told them what he had learned. Masni had told him
how to get into the secret valley by a round about, but easy trail, and
thither Tom, the contractors, Mr. Damon and some of the white tunnel
workers went the next day.
The sequestered men, taken completely by surprise, tried to bolt when
they saw that they were discovered, and then, shamefacedly enough,
admitted their part in the trick.
They would not, however, reveal who had helped them escape from the
tunnel. Threats and promises of rewards were alike unavailing, but Tom
and his employers knew well enough who it was. The tunnel workers
seemed rather tired of living in comparative luxury and idleness, and
agreed to come back to their labors.
They packed up their few belongings, mostly cooking pots and pans, and
marched out of the valley to the village at Rimac.
And so the strike was broken.
The reappearance of the missing men, in better health and spirits than
when they went away, acted like magic. The other men, who had missed
their wages, crowded back into the shaft, and the sounds of picks and
shovels were heard again in the tunnel.
Whether the missing ones told the real story, or whether they made up
some tale to account for their absence, Tom and his friends could not
learn. Nor did the bearded man (if he it were who had helped in the
plot), nor any representative of Blakeson & Grinder appear. The work on
the tunnel was resumed as if nothing had happened. But Tom arranged a
bright light so it would reflect on the spot in the roof where the
moving rock was, so that if the evil face of the bearded man, or of
Waddington, appeared there again, it would quickly be seen. A search of
the neighborhood, and diligent inquiries, failed to disclose the
presence of any of the plotters.
And then, as if Fate was not making it hard enough for the tunnel
contractors, they encountered more trouble. It was after Tom had set
off a big blast that Tim Sullivan, after inspecting what had happened,
came out to ask.
"I soy, Mr. Swift, why didn't yez use more powder?"
"More powder!" cried Tom. "Why, this is the most I have ever set off."
"Then somethin's wrong, sor. Fer there's only a little rock down. Come
an' see fer yersilf."
Tom hastened in. As the foreman had said, the effect of the blast was
small indeed. Only a little rock had been shaled off. Tom picked up
some of this and took it outside for examination.
"Why, it's harder than the hardest flint we've found yet," he said.
"The powder didn't make any impression on it at all. I'll have to use
terrific charges."
This was done, but with little better effect. The explosive, powerful
as it was, ate only a little way into the rock. Blast after blast had
the same poor effect.
"This won't do," said Job Titus, despairingly, one day. "We aren't
making any progress at all. There's a half mile of this rock, according
to my calculations, and at this rate we'll be six months getting
through it. By that time our limit will be up, and we'll be forced to
give up the contract What can we do, Tom Swift?"