CHAPTER XVI.
A MIGHTY JAR IN THE JUNGLE.
It was half-past two in the morning when Ned Nestor and his companionsleft the cottage in the jungle. A few fleecy clouds were now drifting overthe sky, but, on the whole, the night was fairly clear. It was somedistance to Gatun, where Ned hoped to secure a railroad motor for theCulebra trip, so the boys moved along at a swift pace.
However, the party was not destined to reach Gatun as speedily as wasanticipated. When the boys came to the spot from which Ned and Jimmie hadstruck off into the jungle, or into the edge of it, rather, in pursuit ofthe man who had placed the bomb, Jack called Ned's attention to twoskulking figures moving up the swell of the hill which the two boys hadclimbed the night before.
"There are some of your friends--the bomb-makers," Jack said.
"Yes," Ned replied, "they have been in advance of us for some distance."
"Watching the cottage, I presume," Jack suggested.
"More likely watching to see if we remained at home or went abroadplanning mischief for them," Ned replied.
"Then they're next to us," Jimmie broke in. "I'd like to follow 'em up tothe old temple an' blow 'em up."
"I have an idea that something of the sort may happen before morning," Nedsaid. "I had the idea that the fellows would remain away from thebomb-room for a few days, believing that we were watching it, but it seemsthat they are back again. We mustn't permit them to take the stuff away."
"Goin' to blow it up to-night?" demanded Jimmie, eagerly. "Gee, but thatwill make a blow-up for your whiskers. Say! I'd like to sell tickets ofadmission for this performance. That would be poor, wouldn't it?"
"It may not be necessary to blow it up," Ned observed. "If LieutenantGordon sent a couple of secret service men back there, as arranged, thefellows have not got into their bomb-chamber. If the secret service mendid not arrive, it is likely that the plotters are moving the explosivesaway. We'll go and see, anyway."
"I'll run on ahead and see what's doin'," Jimmie exclaimed, darting away.
Ned caught him by the collar and drew him back, whereat the boy appearedto be very angry.
"You little dunce," Ned said, "you'll get a bullet into your anatomy ifyou don't be more careful. Now, you boys go on down the road towardGatun," he added, turning to the others, "and make all the noise you wantto. I'll go up to the old temple and see what is going on there. One ofyou would better go with me--not close up with me, but within seeingdistance."
"That's me," cried Jimmie. "I'll stay near enough to see what becomes ofyou, and go back and tell the boys if they're needed."
This arrangement was finally decided on, and Ned and Jimmie dropped intothe jungle while the others proceeded on the way to Gatun, making plentyof noise as they walked. As they disappeared the two men who had been seenjust before made their appearance at a point half way up the hill.
They stood crouching in the moonlight for a moment, pointing andchattering words which reached the ears of the watchers only faintly, andthen turned toward the old temple. They walked with less caution now, andit was plain to the watchers that they believed that all the boys had goneon to Gatun.
When Ned and Jimmie came within sight of the old temple half a dozenshadowy forms were seen moving about on the uneven pavements which had atone time formed the floor of a court. When the two Ned was followingapproached they advanced to meet them.
A conversation lasting perhaps five minutes followed the meeting, andthen, leaving one man on guard, the others passed through the doorwayunder the vines and disappeared from view. The man who had remainedoutside was evidently the leader of the party, for the others had listenedwhen he talked and had obeyed his orders, as indicated to Ned bygestures.
This man stood at the doorway behind the vines for a moment after theothers had gone below and then seated himself on a crumbling wall not faraway.
"Why don't you geezle him?" whispered Jimmie, who was not staying backvery far, much to Ned's amusement.
"I was thinking of that," Ned replied. "I shall have to circle around soas to get in on him from behind."
"You wait a second," whispered the boy, "and I'll make him turn around soas to face the other way."
Before Ned could offer any objections or restrain the boy's hand, Jimmielaunched a stone into the thicket on the other side. The watcher sprang tohis feet instantly, moved away a few paces, and turned back.
"He's goin' to call the others," Jimmie whispered.
The fellow approached the doorway as Jimmie spoke, which was exactly whatNed did not want. If the man would remain outside, alone, it might bepossible to capture him with little risk. If he called his companions,there would be no hope of taking him prisoner.
Ned motioned to Jimmie and the lad threw another stone into the thicket,and again the watcher moved in that direction. This time he advanced tothe edge of the thicket and bent over to peer under the overhangingbranches of a tree.
Before he could regain an upright position, or give a cry of warningbecause of the quick steps he heard behind him, Ned was grappling withhim, his fingers closing about the muscular throat. It was a desperate,although a silent, struggle for a minute, and Ned might have beendisappointed in the result if Jimmie had not bounced in on the two andterminated the battle by sitting down on the head of the man Ned hadalready thrown to the ground. As an additional precaution against anynoise calculated to alarm the others, Jimmie held his gun close to thecaptive's nose.
"Nothin' stirrin' here," he panted. "You lie still."
"What does this mean?"
The words were English and the voice was certainly that of a man from oneof the Eastern states of the North American republic.
Ned drew a noose around the prisoner's wrists and tied his rather delicatehands together firmly behind his back. Then he searched him for weapons. Arevolver was found in a hip pocket, also a package of papers in a breastpocket. The fellow cursed and swore like a pirate when the papers weretaken.
"This is highway robbery," he finally calmed down enough to say. "I am anofficial of the Zone, and you shall suffer for this."
"Gee," said Jimmie, with a chuckle, "you must have a contract to lift thecanal an' the Gatun dam into the blue sky."
The prisoner snarled at the lad a moment and turned to Ned.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked.
"What are your men doing down there?" Ned asked, ignoring the question.
"They are removing explosives, explosives to be used in the work atGatun."
"Why is it stored here?"
"For safety."
"Were your men storing this bomb," taking the clumsy exhibit from hispocket, "under my cottage for safety?" Ned demanded.
"I don't know anything about that," was the reply. "Return my papers."
Instead of returning them, Ned took the packet from his pocket and made aquick examination so far as the light would permit, of the half dozenletters it held.
The captive writhed about and cursed fluently until Jimmie touched hisforehead with the muzzle of his gun and warned him against "startinganything he couldn't finish," as the boy expressed it.
"Now," Ned said to Jimmie, restoring the letters to his pocket, "you marchthis pirate off toward the cottage while I scare the others out of thebomb-room and blow it up."
"Blow it up before they get out," urged the boy.
"I am no executioner," Ned replied. "They doubtless deserve to be put todeath, but I'm not the one to do it."
"Wait," said the captive, as Jimmie motioned him away. "If you will giveme a chance to tell my side of the story those letters reveal, I may beable to establish my innocence. I can make it worth your while to listento me," he added, significantly.
"Cripes, I smell money," laughed Jimmie.
"Go on with the boy," Ned replied. "If you want to talk with me you may doso later."
"What are you going to do with me?"
"Turn you over to the Zone government."
The captive would have argued until his friends
came out and sized up thesituation, and Ned knew it, so he motioned Jimmie to march the fellow awayand set about the work he had in hand. He took out the bomb he had broughtwith him and estimated the length of time the fuse would burn. It was, ashas been said, a very long fuse, and the boy was satisfied that he couldescape from the danger zone after firing it.
Then, seeing that Jimmie was out of view with his prisoner, he brought outhis gun and fired two shots into the air. The result showed that he hadplanned with judgment, for the men working below came bounding out of thedoorway behind the vines and vanished in the jungle, going in a directionopposite to that taken by Jimmie.
The rapidity with which the workers in the bomb-room disappearedastonished Ned until he reflected that he might unconsciously have given asignal agreed upon between the men and the guard. At any rate, he finallyconcluded, the men were not there to fight in defense of the place ifspied upon, but to seek cover at once, as is the habit of those caught inthe commission of crime.
He had expected to drive them away by firing from the jungle, but had notanticipated a victory as easily won as this. When the workers haddisappeared Ned made his way to the underground room. There he foundtorches burning, and a fire in the forge. The place was littered withgas-pipe cut into small lengths, and the covers had been removed from thetins of explosives.
It was clear that the bomb-makers had been at work there, and the boywondered at their nerve. He could account for their returning to theiremployment there so soon after the place had been visited by hostileinterests only on the ground that they believed the secret service men andthe boys were being held at bay by others of the conspirators.
Wondering whether the boys who had gone on toward Gatun were safe, helighted the fuse of the bomb and hastened up the stairs and out into thejungle. A few yards from the broken wall of the temple he met Jimmie, redof face and laboring under great excitement. He turned the boy back with asignificant gesture toward the temple, and the two worked their waythrough the thickets for some moments without finding time or breath forexplanations.
When at last they stopped for breath they found themselves about at thepoint where they had parted from their chums. As they came into thecleared space a flash lighted up the sky, flames went flickering,seemingly, from horizon to horizon, and lifted to the zenith. Then camethe awful thunder of the explosion. The ground shook so that Jimmie wenttumbling on his face. After the first mighty explosion others came inquick succession.
"That's the little ones," Jimmie cried, rolling over in the knee-deepgrass to clutch at Ned's knee. "Talk about your fourth of July."
As he spoke a slab of stone weighing at least twenty pounds came throughthe air with a vicious whizz and struck a tree close to where the boylay.
"If we don't get out of here we'll get our blocks knocked off," Jimmiesaid.
"The shower is over," Ned replied. "What were you running back for? If youhad not met me, if I had gone out another way, you might have been rightthere when the explosion took place."
"Then I'd 'a' been sailin' around the moon by now," the boy grinned.
"Where is the captive?" demanded Ned.
"He went up in the air," replied Jimmie. "I had me eagle eyes on him onesecond, and the next second he was gone. He didn't shout, or shoot, orrun, or do a consarned thing. He just leaked out. Where do you think hewent?"
"I think," Ned replied, "that you were looking back to see the explosionand he dodged into a thicket."
"Well," admitted Jimmie, "I did look back."
Ned, rather disgusted at the carelessness of the boy, walked on in silenceuntil the two came to the smooth slopes which led up to Gatun. There theyfound the boys, waiting for them, eager for the story of the explosion,and wondering at their long delay.
Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; Or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam Page 16