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.htmlI'll adopt some sort of disguise, and I'll apply to you for work.You can tellTim to put me on.You might let him into the secret, but no one else."A few days later Tom was seen departing with Professor Bumper into theinterior, presumably to help look for the lost city.Mr.Damon was away fromcamp on business connected with the drug concern, and Koku, to his delight,had been given charge of a stationary hoisting engine outside the tunnel, sohe would not come in contact with Tom.It was not thought wise to take thegiant into the secret.Then one day, shortly after Professor Bumper and Tom had disappeared into theforest, a ragged and unkempt white man applied at the tunnel camp for work.There was just the barest wink as he accosted Mr.Titus, who winked in turn,and then the new man was handed over to Tim Sullivan, as a sort of helper.And so Tom Swift began his watch.Chapter XVII.The CondorLeft to himself, with only the rather silent gang of Peruvian Indians ascompany, Tom Swift looked about him.There was not much active work to bedone, only to see that the Indians filled the dump cars evenly full, so noneof the broken rock would spill over the side and litter the tramway.Then,too, he had to keep theIndians up to the mark working, for these men were no different from anyother, and they were just as inclined to "loaf on the job" when the eye of the"boss" was turned away.They did not talk much, murmuring among themselves now and then, and little ofwhat they said was intelligible to Tom.But he knew enough of the language togive them orders, the main one of which was:"Hurry up!"Now, having seen to it that the gang of which he was in temporary charge wasbusily engaged, Tom had a chance to look about him.The tunnel was not new tohim.Much of his time in the past month had been spentTom Swift And His Big TunnelChapter XVII.The Condor58in its black depths, illuminated, more or less, by the string of incandescentlights."What I want to find," mused Tom, as he walked to and fro, "is the place wherethose Indians disappeared.For I'm positive they got away through some hole in this tunnel.They nevercame out the main entrance."Tom held to this view in spite of the fact that nearly every one else believedthe contrarythat the men had left by the tunnel mouth, near which Tom happenedto be alone at the time.Now, left to himself, with merely nominal duties, and so disguised that noneof the workmen would know him for the trim young inventor who oversaw thepreparing of the blast charges, Tom Swift walked to and fro, looking for somecarefully hidden passage or shaft by means of which the men had got away."For it must be well hidden to have escaped observation so long," Tom decided."And it must be a natural shaft, or hole, for we are boring into native rock,and it isn't likely that these Indians ever tried to make a tunnel here.Theremust be some natural fissure communicating with the outside of the mountain,in a place where no one would see the men coming out."But though Tom believed this it was another matter to demonstrate his belief.In the intervals of seeing that the natives properly loaded the dump cars, andremoved as much of the debris as possible, Tom looked carefully along thewalls and roof of the tunnel thus far excavated.There were cracks and fissures, it is true, but they were all superficialones, as Tom ascertained by poking a long pole up into them."No getting out that way," he said, as he met with failure after failure.Once, while thus engaged, he saw Serato, the Indian foreman looking narrowlyPage 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlat him, and Serato said something in his own language which Tom could notunderstand.But just then along came Tim Sullivan, who, grasping thesituation, exclaimed:"Thot's all roight, now, Serri, me lad!" for thus he contracted the Indian'sname."Thot's a new helper I have, a broth of a bye, an' yez kin kape yerhands off him.He's takin' orders from me!""Um!" grunted the Indian."Wha for he fish in tunnel roof?" for Tom's pole wasone like those the Indians used when, on off days, they emulated Izaak Walton."Fishin' is it!" exclaimed Tim."Begorra 'tis flyin' fish he's after I'mthinkin'.Lave him alone though, Serri!I'm his boss!""Um!" grunted the Indian again, as he moved off into the farther darkness."Be careful, Tom," whispered the Irishman, when the native had gone."Theseblack imps is mighty suspicious.Maybe thot fellah had a hand in th'disappearances hisself.""Maybe," admitted Tom."He may get a percentage on all new hands that arehired."Tom kept on with his search, always hoping he might find some hidden means ofgetting out of the tunnel.But as the days went by, and he discovered nothing, he began to despair."The queer thing about it," mused Tom, "is what has become of the ten men.Even if they did find some secret means of leaving, what has become of them?They couldn't completely disappear, and they haveTom Swift And His Big TunnelChapter XVII.The Condor59families and relatives that would make some sort of fuss if they were out ofsight completely this long.Iwonder if any inquiries have been made about them?"When Tom came off duty he asked the Titus brothers whether or not any of therelatives of the missing men had come to seek news about them.None had."Then," said Tom, "you can depend on it the men are all right, and theirrelatives know it.I wonder how it would do to make inquiries at that end?Question some of the relatives.""Bless my hat hand!" exclaimed Mr.Damon, who was at the conference."I neverthought of that.I'll do it for you."The odd man had gotten his quinine gathering business well under way now, andhe had some spare time.So, with an interpreter who could be trusted, he wentto the native village whence had come nearly all of the ten missing men.Butthough Mr.Damon found some of their relatives, the latter, with shrugs oftheir shoulders, declared they had seen nothing of the ones sought."And they didn't seem to worry much, either," reported Mr.Damon."Then we can depend on it," remarked Tom, "that the men are all right andtheir relatives know it.There's some conspiracy here."So it seemed.But who was at the bottom of it?"I can't figure out where Blakeson Grinder come in," said Job Titus."Theywould have an object in crippling us, but they seem to be working from thefinancial end, trying to make us fail there
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