CHAPTER X
THE SECRET CONFERENCE
Blake was silent a moment after making this portentousannouncement. Then he leaned forward, with the evident intentionof picking up the curious, ticking box.
"Look out!" cried Joe, grasping his chum's hand.
"What for?" Blake wanted to know.
"It might be loaded--go off, you know!"
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Blake. "It's probably only some sort offoreign alarm clock, and he stuffed it in there so the tickingwouldn't keep him awake. I've done the same thing when I didn'twant to get up. I used to chuck mine under the bed, or stuff it inan old shoe. What's the matter with you, anyhow? You act scared,"for Joe's face was actually white--that is as white as it could beunder the tan caused by his outdoor life.
"Well, I--I thought," stammered Joe. "Perhaps that was a--"
"Who's getting suspicious now?" demanded Blake with a laugh. "Talkabout me! Why, you're way ahead!"
"Oh, well, I guess I did imagine too much," admitted Joe with alittle laugh. "It probably is an alarm clock, as you say. I wonderwhat we'd better do with it? If we leave it there--"
He was interrupted by the opening of the stateroom door and asboth boys turned they saw their Spanish friend standing on thethreshold staring at them.
"Well!" he exclaimed, and there was an angry note in his voice--anote the boys had never before noticed, for Mr. Alcando was of asunny and happy disposition, and not nearly as quick tempered aspersons of his nationality are supposed to be.
"I suppose it does look; as though we were rummaging in yourthings," said Blake, deciding instantly that it was best to befrank. "But we heard a curious ticking noise when we came downhere, and we traced it to your bunk. We didn't know what it mightbe, and thought perhaps you had put your watch in the bed, andmight have forgotten to take it out. We looked, and found this--"
"Ah, my new alarm clock!" exclaimed Mr. Alcando, and what seemedto be a look of relief passed over his face. He reached in amongthe bed clothes and picked up the curious brass-bound ticking box,with its many little metallic projections.
"I perhaps did not tell you that I am a sort of inventor," theSpaniard went on. "I have not had much success, but I think my newalarm clock is going to bring me in some money. It works on a newprinciple, but I am giving it a good test, privately, before I tryto put it on the market."
He took the brass-bound, ticking box from the bed, and must haveadjusted the mechanism in a way Blake or Joe did not notice, forthe "click-click" stopped at once, and the room seemed curiouslystill after it.
"Some day I will show you how it works," the young Spaniard wenton. "I think, myself, it is quite what you call--clever."
And with that he put the box in a trunk, and closed the lid with asnap that threw the lock.
"And now, boys, we will soon be there!" he cried with a gay laugh."Soon we will be in the beautiful land of Panama, and will see themarvels of that great canal. Are you not glad? And I shall beginto learn more about making moving pictures! That will please me,though I hope I shall not be so stupid a pupil as to make troublefor you, my friends, to whom I owe so much."
He looked eagerly at the boys.
"We'll teach you all we know, which isn't such an awful lot," saidJoe. "And I don't believe you'll be slow."
"You have picked up some of it already," went on Blake, for whiledelaying over making their arrangements in New York the boys andtheir pupil had gone into the rudiments of moving picture work.
"I am glad you think so," returned the other. "I shall be gladwhen we are at work, and more glad still, when I can, with my owncamera, penetrate into the fastness of the jungle, along the linesof our railroad, and show what we have done to bring civilizationthere. The film will be the eyes of the world, watching ourprogress," he added, poetically.
"Why don't you come up on deck," he proceeded. "It is warm downhere."
"We just came down," said Joe, "but it is hot," for they wereapproaching nearer to the Equator each hour.
While the boys were following the young Spaniard up on deck, Joefound a chance to whisper to Blake:
"I notice he was not at all anxious to show us how his brass-boxalarm clock worked."
"No," agreed Blake in a low voice, "and yet his invention mightbe in such a shape that he didn't want to exhibit it yet."
"So you think that's the reason, eh?"
"Surely. Don't you?"
"I do not!"
"What then?"
"Well, I think he's trying to--"
"Hush, here he comes!" cautioned Blake, for their friend at thatmoment came back from a stroll along the forward deck.
But if Joe was really suspicious of the young Spaniard nothingthat occurred in the next few days served to develop thatsuspicion. No reference was made to the odd alarm clock, which wasnot heard to tick again, nor was it in evidence either in Mr.Alcando's bed, or elsewhere.
"What were you going to say it was that time when I stopped you?"asked Blake of his chum one day.
"I was going to say I thought it might be some sort of animprovement on a moving picture camera," Joe answered. "This maybe only a bluff of his--wanting to learn how to take movingpictures. He may know how all along, and only be working on acertain improvement that he can't perfect until he gets just theright conditions. That's what I think."
"Well, you think wrong," declared Blake. "As for him knowingsomething about the pictures now, why he doesn't even know how tothread the film into the camera."
"Oh, well, maybe I'm wrong," admitted Joe.
Day succeeded day, until, in due time, after their stop at SanJuan, where the boys went ashore for a brief visit, the steamerdropped anchor in the excellent harbor of Colon, at the Atlanticend of the great Panama Canal.
A storm was impending as the ship made her way up the harbor, butas the boys and the other passengers looked at the greatbreak-water, constructed to be one of the protections to theCanal, they realized what a stupendous undertaking the work was,and they knew that no storm could affect them, now they werewithin the Colon harbor.
"Well, we're here at last!" exclaimed Joe, as he looked over theside and noticed many vessels lying about, most of them connectedin some manner with the canal construction.
"Yes, and now for some moving pictures--at least within a day orso," went on Blake. "I'm tired of doing nothing. At last we are atPanama!"
"And I shall soon be with you, taking pictures!" cried theSpaniard. "How long do you think it will be before I can take someviews myself?" he asked eagerly.
"Oh, within a week or so we'll trust you with a camera," saidBlake.
"That is, if you can spare time from your alarm clock invention,"added Joe, with a curious glance at his chum.
But if Mr. Alcando felt any suspicions at the words he did notbetray himself. He smiled genially, made some of his rapid Latingestures and exclaimed:
"Oh, the clock. He is safe asleep, and will be while I am here. Iwork only on moving pictures now!"
In due season Blake, Joe and Mr. Alcando found themselvesquartered in the pleasant Washington Hotel, built by the PanamaRailroad for the Government, where they found, transported to aSouthern clime, most of the luxuries demanded by people of theNorth.
"Well, this is something like living!" exclaimed Blake as theirbaggage and moving picture cameras and accessories having been putaway, they sat on the veranda and watched breaker after breakersweep in from the Caribbean Sea.
"The only trouble is we won't be here long enough," complainedJoe, as he sipped a cooling lime drink, for the weather was quitewarm. "We'll have to leave it and take to the Canal or the jungle,to say nothing of standing up to our knees in dirt taking slides."
"Do you--er--really have to get very close to get pictures of thebig slides?" asked Mr. Alcando, rather nervously, Blake thought.
"The nearer the better," Joe replied. "Remember that time, Blake,when we were filming the volcano, and the ground opened right atyour feet?"
"I should say I did remember it,"
said Blake. "Some picture that!"
"Where was this?" asked the Spaniard.
"In earthquake land. There were _some_ times there!"
"Ha! Do not think to scare me!" cried their pupil with a franklaugh. "I said I was going to learn moving pictures and Iam--slides or no slides."
"Oh, we're not trying to 'josh' you," declared Blake. "We'll allhave to run some chances. But it's all in the day's work, and,after all, it's no more risky than going to war."
"No, I suppose not," laughed their pupil. "Well, when do westart?"
"As soon as we can arrange for the government tug to take usalong the Canal," answered Blake. "We'll have to go in one of theUnited States vessels, as the Canal isn't officially opened yet.We'll have to make some inquiries, and present our letters ofintroduction. If we get started with the films inside of a weekwe'll be doing well."
The week they had to wait until their plans were completed was apleasant one. They lived well at the hotel, and Mr. Alcando metsome Spaniards and other persons whom he knew, and to whom heintroduced the boys.
Finally the use of the tug was secured, cameras were loaded withthe reels of sensitive film, other reels in their light-tightmetal boxes were packed for transportation, and shipping cases, sothat the exposed reels could be sent to the film company in NewYork for developing and printing, were taken along.
Not only were Blake and Joe without facilities for developing thefilms they took, but it is very hard to make negatives in hotcountries. If you have ever tried to develop pictures on a hotday, without an ice water bath, you can understand this. And therewas just then little ice to be had for such work as photographythough some might have been obtained for an emergency. Blake andJoe were only to make the exposures; the developing and printingcould better be done in New York.
"Well, we'll start up the canal to-morrow," said Blake to Joe onthe evening of their last day in Colon.
"Yes, and I'll be glad of it," remarked Joe. "It's nice enoughhere at this hotel, but I want to get busy."
"So do I," confessed his chum.
They were to make the entire trip through the Canal as guests ofUncle Sam, the Government having acceded to Mr. Hadley's request,as the completed films were to form part of the official exhibitat the exposition in California later on.
"Whew, but it _is_ hot!" exclaimed Joe, after he and Blake hadlooked over their possessions, to make sure they were forgettingnothing for their trip next day.
"Yes," agreed Blake. "Let's go out on the balcony for a breath ofair."
Their room opened on a small balcony which faced the beach. Mr.Alcando had a room two or three apartments farther along thecorridor, and his, too, had a small balcony attached. As Blake andJoe went out on theirs they saw, in the faint light of a crescentand much-clouded moon, two figures on the balcony opening from theSpaniard's room.
"He has company," said Joe, in a low voice.
"Yes," agreed Blake. "I wonder who it is? He said all of hisfriends had left the hotel. He must have met some new ones."
It was very still that night, the only sounds being the low boomand hiss of the surf as it rushed up the beach. And gradually, toJoe and Blake, came the murmur of voices from the Spaniard'sbalcony. At first they were low, and it seemed to the boys, thoughneither expressed the thought, that the conference was a secretone. Then, clearly across the intervening space, came the words:
"Are you sure the machine works right?"
"Perfectly," was the answer, in Mr. Alcando's tones. "I have givenit every test."
Then the voices again sunk to a low murmur.
The Moving Picture Boys at Panama; Or, Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal Page 10