MR. ALCANDO DISAPPEARS
For several seconds Blake and Joe stood there--without moving--only
listening. And that strange noise they heard kept up its monotonous
note.
“Hear it!” whispered Joe.
“Yes,” answered Blake. “The brass box--the box--he had!”
“Yes,” whispered Joe. All the suspicions he had had--all those he
had laughed at Blake for harboring, came back to him in a rush. The
brass-bound box contained clockwork. Was it an alarm after all?
Certainly it had given an alarm now--a most portentous alarm!
“We’ve got to find it!” said Blake.
“Sure,” Joe assented. “It may go off any minute now. We’ve got to find
it. Seems to be near here.”
They began looking about on the ground, as though they could see
anything in that blackness. But they were trying to trace it by the
sound of the ticks. And it is no easy matter, if you have ever tried
to locate the clock in a dark room.
“We ought to give the alarm,” said Blake.
“Before it is too late,” assented Joe. “Where can it be? It seems near
here, and yet we can’t locate it.”
“Get down on your hands and knees and crawl around,” advised Blake. In
this fashion they searched for the elusive tick-tick. They could hear
it, now plainly, and now faintly, but they never lost it altogether.
And each of them recognized the peculiar clicking sound as the same
they had heard coming from the brass-bound box Mr. Alcando had said was
his new alarm clock.
“Hark!” suddenly exclaimed Blake.
Off to the left, where was planted the automatic camera, came a faint
noise. It sounded like a suppressed exclamation. Then came an echo as
if someone had fallen heavily.
An instant later the whole scene was lit up by a brilliant flash--a
flash that rivaled the sun in brightness, and made Blake and Joe stare
like owls thrust suddenly into the glare of day.
“The dynamite!” gasped Joe, unconsciously holding himself in readiness
for a shock.
“The flashlight--the automatic camera!” cried Blake. There was no need
for silence now.
The whole scene was brilliantly lighted, and remained so for many
seconds. And in the glare of the magnesium powder the moving picture
boys saw a curious sight.
Advancing toward the dam was a solitary figure, which had come to halt
when the camera went off with the flashlight. It was the figure of a
man who had evidently just arisen after a fall.
“Mr. Alcando!” gasped Joe.
“The Spaniard!” fairly shouted Blake.
Then, as the two chums looked on the brilliantly lighted scene, knowing
that the camera was faithfully taking pictures of every move of their
recent pupil, the boys saw, rushing toward Alcando, a number of the men
and soldiers who had been in hiding.
“He’s surrounded--as good as caught,” Blake cried. “So he’s the guilty
one.”
“Unless there’s a mistake,” spoke Joe.
“Mistake! Never!” shouted his chum.
“Look--the brass box!”
The glare of the distant flashlight illuminated the ground at their
feet, and there, directly in front of them, was the ticking box. From
it trailed two wires, and, as Blake looked at them he gave a start.
The next moment he had knelt down, and with a pair of pliers he carried
for adjusting the mechanism of his camera severed the wires with a
quick snap. The ticking in the box still went on, but the affair was
harmless now. It could not make the electrical current to discharge the
deadly dynamite.
“Boys! Boys! Where are you?” cried Captain Wiltsey.
“Here!” cried Blake. “We’ve stopped the infernal machine!”
“And we’ve got the dynamiter. He’s your friend--”
The rest of the words died away as the light burned itself out. Intense
blackness succeeded.
“Come on!” cried Joe. “They’ve got him. We won’t have to work the hand
cameras. The automatic did it!”
They stumbled on through the darkness. Lanterns were brought and they
saw Mr. Alcando a prisoner in the midst of the Canal guards. The
Spaniard looked at the boys, and smiled sadly.
“Well, it--it’s all over,” he said. “But it isn’t as bad as it seems.”
“It’s bad enough, as you’ll find,” said Captain Wiltsey grimly. “Are
you sure the wires are disconnected, boys?” he asked.
“Sure,” replied Blake, holding out the brass box.
“Oh, so you found it,” said the Spaniard. “Well, even if it had gone
off there wouldn’t have been much of an explosion.”
“It’s easy enough to say that--now,” declared the captain.
But later, when they followed up the wires which Blake had severed,
which had run from the brass-bound box to a point near the spillway of
the dam, it was found that only a small charge of dynamite had been
buried there--a charge so small that it could not possibly have done
more than very slight damage to the structure.
“I can’t understand it,” said Captain Wiltsey. “They could just as well
have put a ton there, and blown the place to atoms, and yet they didn’t
use enough to blow a boulder to bits. I don’t understand it.”
“But why should Mr. Alcando try to blow up the dam at all?” asked
Blake. “That’s what I can’t understand.”
But a little later they did, for the Spaniard confessed. He had to
admit his part in the plot, for the moving pictures, made by the
automatic camera, were proof positive that he was the guilty one.
“Yes, it was I who tried to blow up the dam,” Alcando admitted, “but,
as you have seen, it was only to be an attempt to damage it. It was
never intended to really destroy it. It was an apparent attempt, only.”
“But what for?” he was asked.
“To cause a lack of confidence in the Canal,” was the unexpected
answer. “Those I represent would like to see it unused. It is going to
ruin our railroad interests.”
Then he told of the plot in detail.
Alcando was connected, as I have told you, with a Brazilian railroad.
The road depended for its profits on carrying goods across South
America. Once the Canal was established goods could be transported much
more cheaply and quickly by the water route. The railroad owners knew
this and saw ruin ahead of them if the Canal were to be successful.
Consequently they welcomed every delay, every accident, every slide in
Culebra Cut that would put off the opening of the great waterway.
But the time finally came when it was finished, and a success. Then
one of the largest stockholders of the railroad, an unprincipled man,
planned a plot. At first his fellow stockholders would not agree to it,
but he persuaded them, painting the ruin of their railroad, and saying
only slight damage would be done to the Canal.
His plan was to make a slight explosion, or two or more of them, near
Culebra Cut or at the great dam. This, he anticipated, would cause
shippers to regard the Canal with fear, and refuse to send their goods
through it. In that way the railroad would still hold its trade.
Alcando was picked for the work. He did not want to undertake it, but
he was promised a large sum, and threats were made against him, for the
originator of the plot had a certain hold over him.
“But I was to throw the blame on innocent parties if I could,” the
Spaniard went on, in his confession. “Also I was to select a means of
causing the explosion that would not easily be detected. I selected
moving pictures as the simplest means. I knew that some were to be
made of the Canal for Government use, and I thought if I got in with
the moving picture operators I would have a good chance, and good
excuse, for approaching the dam without being suspected. After I had
accomplished what I set out to do I could, I thought, let suspicion
rest on the camera men.
“So I laid my plans. I learned that Mr. Hadley’s firm had received the
contract to make the views, and, by inquiries, through spies, I learned
who their principal operators were. It was then I came to you boys,”
he said. “Ashamed as I am to confess it, it was my plan to have the
blame fall on you.”
Blake and Joe gasped.
“But when you saved my life at the broken bridge that time, of course
I would not dream of such a dastardly trick,” the Spaniard resumed. “I
had to make other plans. I tried to get out of it altogether, but that
man would not let me. So I decided to sacrifice myself. I would myself
blow up the dam, or, rather, make a little explosion that would scare
prospective shippers. I did not care what became of me as long as I did
not implicate you. I could not do that.
“So I changed my plans. Confederates supplied the dynamite, and I
got this clockwork, in the brass-bound box, to set it off by means
of electrical wires. I planned to be far away when it happened, but
I would have left a written confession that would have put the blame
where it belonged.
“I kept the battery box connections and clockwork inside the small
camera I carried. To-night all was in readiness. The dynamite was
planted, and I set the mechanism. But something went wrong with it.
There was too much of a delay. I came back to change the timer. I broke
the string connections you made, and--I was caught by the camera. The
news had, somehow, leaked out, and I was caught. Well, perhaps it is
better so,” and he shrugged his shoulders with seeming indifference.
“But please believe me when I say that no harm would have come to you
boys,” he went on earnestly, “nor would the dam have been greatly
damaged.
“It was all a terrible plot in which I became involved, not all through
my own fault,” went on the Spaniard, dramatically. “As soon as I met
you boys, after you had saved my life, I repented of my part, but I
could not withdraw. The plans of this scoundrel--yes, I must call him
so, though perhaps I am as great--his plans called for finding out
something about the big guns that protect the Canal. Only I was not
able to do that, though he ordered me to in a letter I think you saw.”
Blake nodded. He and Joe were beginning to understand many strange
things.
“One of the secret agents brought me the box containing the mechanism
that was to set off the dynamite,” the Spaniard resumed. “You nearly
caught him,” he added, and Blake recalled the episode of the cigar
smoke. “I had secret conferences with the men engaged with me in the
plot,” the conspirator confessed. “At times I talked freely about
dynamiting the dam, in order to throw off the suspicions I saw you
entertained regarding me. But I must explain one thing. The collision,
in which the tug was sunk, had nothing to do with the plot. That was a
simple accident, though I did know the captain of that unlucky steamer.
“Finally, after I had absented myself from here several times, to see
that all the details of the plot were arranged, I received a letter
telling me the dynamite had been placed, and that, after I had set it
off, I had better flee to Europe.”
Blake had accidentally seen that letter.
“I received instructions, the time we were starting off on the tug,”
went on Alcando, “that the original plot was to be changed, and that a
big charge of dynamite was to be used instead of a small one.
“But I refused to agree to it,” he declared. “I felt that, in spite of
what I might do to implicate myself, you boys would be blamed, and I
could not have that if the Canal were to suffer great damage. I would
have done anything to protect you, after what you did in saving my
worthless life,” he said bitterly. “So I would not agree to all the
plans of that scoundrel, though he urged me most hotly.
“But it is all over, now!” he exclaimed with a tragic gesture. “I am
caught, and it serves me right. Only I can be blamed. My good friends,
you will not be,” and he smiled at Blake and Joe. “I am glad all the
suspense is at an end. I deserve my punishment. I did not know the plot
had been discovered, and that the stage was set to make so brilliant a
capture of me. But I am glad you boys had the honor.
“But please believe me in one thing. I really did want to learn how
to take moving pictures, though it was to be a blind as to my real
purpose. And, as I say, the railroad company did not want to really
destroy the dam. After we had put the Canal out of business long enough
for us to have amassed a fortune we would have been content to see it
operated. We simply wanted to destroy public confidence in it for a
time.”
“The worst kind of destruction,” murmured Captain Wiltsey. “Take him
away, and guard him well,” he ordered the soldiers. “We will look
further into this plot to-morrow.”
But when to-morrow came there was no Mr. Alcando. He had managed to
escape in the night from his frail prison, and whither he had gone no
one knew.
But that he had spoken the truth was evident. A further investigation
showed that it would have been impossible to have seriously damaged
the dam by the amount of dynamite hidden. But, as Captain Wiltsey
said, the destruction of public confidence would have been a serious
matter.
“And so it was Alcando, all along,” observed Blake, a few days later,
following an unsuccessful search for the Spaniard.
“Yes, our suspicions of him were justified,” remarked Blake. “It’s
a lucky thing for us that we did save his life, mean as he was. It
wouldn’t have been any joke to be suspected of trying to blow up the
dam.”
“No, indeed,” agreed Blake. “And suspicion might easily have fallen on
us. It was a clever trick. Once we had the Government permission to go
all over with our cameras, and Alcando, as a pupil, could go with us,
he could have done almost anything he wanted. But the plot failed.”
“Lucky it did,” remarked Joe. “I guess they’ll get after that railroad
man next.”
But the stockholder who was instrumental in forming the plot, like
Alcando, disappeared. That they did not suffer for their parts in the
affair, as they should have, was rumored later, when both of them were
seen in a European capital, well supplied with money. How they got it
no one knew.
The Brazilian Railroad, however, repudiated the attempt to damage the
Canal, even apparently, laying all the blame on the two men who had
disappeared. But from then on more stringent regulations were adopted
about admitting strangers to vital parts of the Canal.
“But we’re through,” commented Blake one day, when he and Joe had
filmed the last views of the big waterway. “That Alcando was a ‘slick’
one, though.”
“Indeed he was,” agreed Joe. “The idea of calling that a new alarm
clock!” and he looked at the brass-bound box. Inside was a most
complicated electrical timing apparatus, for setting off charges of
explosive. It could be adjusted to cause the detonation at any set
minute, giving the plotter time to be a long way from the scene.
And, only because of a slight defect, Alcando would have been far from
the scene when the little explosion occurred at Gatun Dam.
Once more the great Canal was open to traffic. The last of the slide in
Culebra Cut had been taken out, and boats could pass freely.
“Let’s make a trip through now, just for fun,” suggested Blake to Joe
one day, when they had packed up their cameras.
Permission was readily granted them to make a pleasure trip through to
Panama, and it was greatly enjoyed by both of them.
“Just think!” exclaimed Blake, as they sat under an awning on the deck
of their boat, and looked at the blue water, “not a thing to do.”
“Until the next time,” suggested Joe.
“That’s right--we never do seem to be idle long,” agreed Blake. “I
wonder what the ‘next time’ will be?”
And what it was, and what adventures followed you may learn by reading
the next volume of this series, to be called “The Movie Boys Under the
Sea”; or “The Treasure of the Lost Ship.”
“Here you go, Blake!” cried Joe, a few days later. “Letter for you!”
“Thanks. Get any yourself?”
“Yes, one.”
“Huh! How many do you want?” asked Blake, as he began reading his
epistle. “Well, I’ll soon be back,” he added in a low voice, as he
finished.
“Back where?” asked Joe.
“To New York.”
And so, with these pleasant thoughts, we will take leave of the moving
picture boys.
THE END
The Movie Boys Series
_By_ VICTOR APPLETON
THE MOVIE BOYS ON CALL,
or Filming the Perils of A Great City. _Published January 2, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS IN THE WILD WEST,
or Stirring Days Among the Cowboys and Indians.
_Published January 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS AND THE WRECKERS,
or Facing the Perils of the Deep. _Published February 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE,
or Lively Times Among the Wild Beasts. _Published March 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE LAND,
or Filming Pictures and Strange Perils. _Published April 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS AND THE FLOOD,
or Perilous Days on the Mighty Mississippi. _Published May 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS IN PERIL,
or Strenuous Days Along the Panama Canal. _Published June 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS UNDER THE SEA,
or The Treasure of the Lost Ship. _Published July 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS UNDER FIRE,
or The Search for the Stolen Film. _Published August 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS UNDER UNCLE SAM,
or Taking Pictures for the Army. _Published September 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS’ FIRST SHOWHOUSE,
or Fighting for a Foothold in Fairlands.
_Published October 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS AT SEASIDE PARK,
or The Rival Photo Houses of the Boardwalk.
_Published November 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS ON BROADWAY,
or The Mystery of the Missing Cash Box.
_Published December 28, 1926_
THE MOVIE BOYS’ OUTDOOR EXHIBITION,
or the Film that Solved the Mystery. _Published January 28, 1927_
THE MOVIE BOYS’ NEW IDEA,
or Getting the Best of Their Enemies. _Published February 28, 1927_
THE MOVIE BOYS AT THE BIG FAIR,
or The Greatest Film Ever Exhibited. _Published March 28, 1927_
THE MOVIE BOYS’ WAR SPECTACLE,
or The Film that Won the Prize. _Published April 28, 1927_
Garden City Publishing Co., _Inc._
Garden City New York
The Frank Allen Series
_By_ GRAHAM B. FORBES
FRANK ALLEN’S SCHOOLDAYS,
or The All Around Rivals of Columbia High.
_Published January 2, 1926_
FRANK ALLEN PLAYING TO WIN,
or the Boys of Columbia High on the Ice.
_Published January 7, 1926_
FRANK ALLEN IN WINTER SPORTS,
or Columbia High on Skates and Iceboats.
_Published February 7, 1926_
FRANK ALLEN AND HIS RIVALS,
or The Boys of Columbia High in Track Athletics.
_Published March 7, 1926_
FRANK ALLEN--PITCHER,
or The Boys of Columbia High on the Diamond.
_Published April 7, 1926_
FRANK ALLEN--HEAD OF THE CREW,
or The Boys of Columbia High on the River.
_Published May 7, 1926_
FRANK ALLEN IN CAMP,
or Columbia High and the School League Rivals.
_Published June 7, 1926_
Garden City Publishing Co., _Inc._
Garden City New York
THE NAT RIDLEY RAPID FIRE DETECTIVE STORIES
_By_ NAT RIDLEY, Jr.
GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY,
or Nat Ridley’s Great Race Track Case. _Published January 2, 1926_
TRACKED TO THE WEST,
or Nat Ridley at the Magnet Mine. _Published January 21, 1926_
IN THE NICK OF TIME,
or Nat Ridley Saving a Life. _Published February 21, 1926_
THE CRIME ON THE LIMITED,
or Nat Ridley in the Follies. _Published March 21, 1926_
A DARING ABDUCTION,
or Nat Ridley’s Biggest Fight. _Published April 21, 1926_
THE STOLEN NUGGETS OF GOLD,
or Nat Ridley on the Yukon. _Published May 21, 1926_
A SECRET OF THE STAGE,
or Nat Ridley and the Bouquet of Death. _Published June 21, 1926_
THE GREAT CIRCUS MYSTERY,
or Nat Ridley on a Crooked Trail. _Published July 21, 1926_
A SCREAM IN THE DARK,
or Nat Ridley’s Crimson Clue. _Published August 21, 1926_
THE RACE TRACK CROOKS,
or Nat Ridley’s Queerest Puzzle. _Published September 21, 1926_
Garden City Publishing Co., _Inc._
Garden City New York
The Dave Fearless Series
_By_ ROY ROCKWOOD
DAVE FEARLESS AFTER A SUNKEN TREASURE,
or The Rival Ocean Divers. _Published January 2, 1926_
DAVE FEARLESS ON A FLOATING ISLAND,
or The Cruise of the Treasure Ship. _Published January 14, 1926_
DAVE FEARLESS AND THE CAVE OF MYSTERY,
or Adrift on the Pacific. _Published February 14, 1926_
DAVE FEARLESS AMONG THE ICEBERGS,
or The Secret of the Eskimo Igloo. _Published March 14, 1926_
DAVE FEARLESS WRECKED AMONG SAVAGES,
or The Captives of the Head Hunters. _Published April 14, 1926_
DAVE FEARLESS AND HIS BIG RAFT,
or Alone on the Broad Atlantic. _Published May 14, 1926_
Garden City Publishing Co., _Inc._
Garden City New York
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.