CHAPTER VI.
A BOMB AND A RUINED TEMPLE.
Ned lay perfectly still and the door was closed again, with the figurestill on the outside. There were no lights inside the cottage, and it wasa fairly clear night, so the boy could see the man standing on the porch,the wire screen in the door robbing his figure of sharp outline.
The intruder appeared to be listening for some sound within. Now and thenhe bent his head forward toward the door, and once, when Jimmie snortedout in his sleep, he darted a hand toward his hip, as if reaching for aweapon.
"His Nobbs, or his substitute, has arrived," thought Ned.
After a moment the man left the porch, closing the outer door carefullybehind him. Ned was out of bed in an instant, following on after him. Whenhe gained the porch, the intruder was turning the corner of the house.
Fearful of being seen, Ned crouched in a dark corner of the porch andwaited. He could hear the fellow moving about, but could not see him, ashe kept away from the front of the cottage.
The situation did not change for five minutes. The unwelcome visitor wasstill moving about outside and Ned was waiting for some decisive move tobe made. The cottage did not rest on the knoll itself, but was set up onblocks a foot or more in height, and before long the boy heard soundswhich indicated that the man he was watching was creeping in under thefloor.
Waiting only long enough to make sure of this, Ned left the porch and hidhimself in the jungle, which, on the south, came to within a few feet ofthe wall. The fellow was indeed under the house, as the boy knew by thesounds he made. It was perfectly dark under there, so his movements couldnot be observed.
In five minutes more the fellow backed out and arose to his feet. Then Nedsaw that he held something in his right hand which looked like a fuse. Itseemed that it was the man's benevolent idea to deprive the jungle of thesociety of the boys by blowing up their cottage.
Ned's first impulse was to shoot the fellow where he stood. He had nodoubt that the fellow had put enough explosive under the floor to killevery person in it. That would be murder, and the boy's impulse was todeal out to the ruffian the fate of a murderer.
But he did not fire, for the intruder had not yet lighted the fuse. Hestood for a moment with the end in his hand and then moved toward thatpart of the jungle where Ned was concealed. The boy moved cautiouslyaside, but even then, as the man crouched down in the vines, he could havetouched him with a hand by crawling a yard to the front.
Deliberately the fellow lighted a match and applied it to the fuse. Theend of the cord brightened for an instant and then became black again.
"It is wet."
The words were whispered in English.
He struck another match, listened an instant to make sure that the noiseof the lighting had not attracted attention inside the cottage, andapplied it to the fuse. The fuse burned swiftly, and the boy heard theincendiary go crashing through the tangle of vines and creepers, headingtoward the south.
Ned cut the fuse above the crawling coal and stood for a moment listeningto the man struggling with the undergrowth. Then he hastened into thecottage and laid a hand on Frank Shaw's shoulder.
"Get up," he whispered. "The fireworks have begun."
Frank sat up in his bunk and rubbed his eyes sleepily.
"What is it?" he asked. "Have you found the necklace?"
"Dress, quick."
"Wonder you wouldn't let a fellow sleep," grumbled Frank.
While the boys were dressing there came a snicker from Jimmie's bed.
"Don't start anythin' you can't stop," they heard the boy whisper.
"Want a midnight ramble among the snakes?" asked Ned, drawing on a pair ofrubber boots which came up to his thighs.
"You bet I do," was the reply.
"Then get up and dress, and put on your high boots, for there are crawlingthings in the jungle."
Leaving the boys dressing, Ned hastened outside and listened. The man whohad attempted the destruction of the cottage was still moving through thethicket. It seemed to Ned that an army could have made no more noise thanhe made. In a moment he was joined by Frank and Jimmie.
In as few words as possible Ned explained the situation to his amazedchums.
"What you goin' to do?" Jimmie asked.
"I want to follow that fellow to his principal," was the reply. "I want toknow who set him at such cowardly work."
"It won't be difficult to follow him," Frank said. "He makes a noise likea circus parade."
"One of you must stay here and watch the cottage," Ned said, then. "Whenthe explosion does not come, he may circle back here to see what hashappened. The other may go with me."
Both boys insisted on accompanying Ned, but it was finally decided that itwould be better policy to leave Frank at the cottage.
"You'll have to make haste," Frank said, regretfully, "for the sounds heis making are becoming fainter. What are you going to do with that fuse?"he added, as Ned drew on the line and hauled about half a foot of gas pipefrom under the house.
"It will do no harm to take it with me," Ned replied. "It is not veryheavy to carry, and it may be of use."
"I hope you'll blow that chap up with it," exclaimed Jimmie.
"Be careful that you don't blow yourself up with it," warned Frank.
"There are no cigarette smokers in the party, and so there is no danger,"was the reply.
"I'll be here listening when the explosion comes," grinned Frank.
The sounds out in the jungle were now growing fainter. The man was eitherfinding the way easier or he was getting some distance away.
"Come on," Jimmie urged. "He'll get away from us."
"If you make as much noise as he does," Frank said, "he'll stop and shootyou before you get anywhere near him."
It was no part of Ned's intention, however, to follow the intruder throughthe jungle. He was now waiting to make sure of the general direction thefellow was taking. He listened some moments longer, until the sounds grewvery faint indeed, and then took the path which led from the cottage to afairly well-made road ending five miles away at one of the streets ofGatun.
"You're gettin' the wrong steer," Jimmie said, as they moved along."You'll have to go around the world if you catch him by going this way."
"The fellow is making for the hills," explained Ned, "and we may be ableto catch him as he comes out of the jungle."
The boys made good speed along the cleared lane until they came to arolling, grassy hill, one of many leading up to the summit. Then theyturned off to the east, still keeping their pace but taking precautionsagainst being seen, as the night was clearer now than before, and a moonlooked down from the sky.
Finally Ned paused in a little valley on a gentle slope.
It was one of the wonderful nights rarely experienced save under theequator, or very close to the middle girdle of the globe. The luxuriantgrowths of the jungle seemed to be breathing in long, steady pulsations,so uniform was the lifting and falling of the night breeze.
Now and then the call of a night bird or the cry of a wild animal in thethickets came through the heavy air. From the distance came the clamor ofthe greatest work the world has ever undertaken. The thud and creaking ofmachinery mingled with the primitive noises of the forest. And far awayover the cut flared the white light of the great electric globes whichlighted the workers on their tasks.
As the boys looked forth from their depression in the side of the slope,two men came around the rise of the hill and stood at the edge of thejungle, not more than half a dozen yards away. Almost at the same instantit became apparent that some one was floundering about in the thicketimmediately in front of them.
A low whistle cut the air, and then the creepers parted and a man's headand shoulders appeared. Ned and Jimmie crouched lower in their dent in thegrassy hill.
The man emerged from the thicket and stood with the others, tearingclinging vines and leaves from his clothing as he did so.
"What is wrong?" a voice asked. "There has been no explosi
on."
"The fuse was wet," was the reply.
"Then why didn't you go back and fix it?" demanded the first speaker. "Thesooner the job is done the better."
"I heard some one stirring in the jungle," was the reply.
"A nice man to be given such a task," roared another voice. "You must goback."
"You've landed the plotters, all right," whispered Jimmie. "I'll betthere's plenty more bombs like the one you have, waiting to be tuckedunder the Gatun dam. Gee! I'd like to take a shot at them gazabos."
Still standing in the moonlight, only a short distance from the listeningboys, the three men argued in low tones for a moment. It was clear thatthe man who had placed the bomb was refusing to obey the orders given bythe others.
"I'm not in love with the job, anyway," the fellow snarled, "and you maydo it yourselves if you want it done to-night."
The others did not appear to relish the murderous job they were urging thespeaker to undertake, and in a few moments the party moved around the baseof the hill and then struck for the higher ground by way of a gully whichcut between two elevations.
When the boys, mounting the breast of the hill and crouching at thesummit, saw the men again, two were making for the cloud of light whichlay over the workings while the other was following the crest of the hilltoward the east.
Presently the two swung down into a valley, and then twin lights likethose of a great touring car showed over a rise.
"What do you think of that?" asked Jimmie. "There must be a good roadthere."
The car came on a few yards after the lamp showed, and the two menclambered aboard. In five minutes the motor car was speeding towardGatun.
"Two for the city and one for the tall timber," Jimmie snickered, as thecar moved out of view. "There's the solitary individual watching them fromthe summit."
As the boy spoke the man who had laid the bomb so unsuccessfully facedaway to the east and disappeared down the slope. It was not difficult tokeep track of him, although the necessity for concealment was imperative,and the fellow proceeded at a swift pace for an hour.
At the end of that time he was in a lonely section of country, whererounded knolls were surrounded by the dense growth of the jungle. In spiteof the wildness of the spot, however, Ned saw that civilization had atsome distant time made its mark there. Here and there low, broken walls ofbrick lifted from the grass, and the vegetation was not quite soluxuriant. In numerous places, as they advanced, the boys saw that theground had once been leveled off as if to make way for a building, theruins of which were still to be seen.
"One of the ruined cities of the Isthmus," Jimmie whispered. "If Petercould see this he would know all about it."
"It wasn't a very large city," laughed Ned.
"There's the ruins of a temple over there," insisted the boy. "There's awall standing yet. And there's the man we want going into it."
As the boy spoke the man they were following disappeared behind the wall.Before he could be restrained Jimmie wiggled forward to the foot of theruin. Nestor saw him peering around the end of the line of brick andhastened forward.
The man they had followed was nowhere in sight when Ned turned the angle,and Jimmie lay on the ground in the shadows, kicking up his heels.
"He went down through the earth," the boy giggled, regardless of thedanger of the situation. "He went right down through the ground. Say, buthe's a corker, to get out of sight like that."
Ned caught the lad by the arm, to silence him, and listened. A steadyclick-click came from the ground beneath their feet. The sounds camecontinuously, almost with the regularity of the ticking of a clock.
"Where was he when he disappeared?" asked Ned.
"Over there in the corner," was the reply. "He walked up to the wall andstepped out of sight. What's that queer smell?" he added, sniffing theair.
"There must be a fire down there in the vaults of the old temple," repliedNed. "They must have a fire, for the smoke is coming out of a crevice atthe top of that wall, and they are working on metal."
"Yes," said Jimmie, "an' I'll bet they're makin' more bombs--bombs for thedam."
Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; Or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam Page 6