“Well, I hope he and Andy keep away from us. They make trouble everywhere they go. Now come on, get busy.”
And, though Tom tried to drive from his mind the thoughts of the Fogers, yet it was with an uneasy sense of some portending disaster that he went on with the work of preparing for the trip into the unknown. He said nothing to Ned about it, but perhaps his chum guessed.
“That’ll do,” said Tom after an hour’s labor. “We’ll call it a night’s work and quit. Can’t you stay here—we’ve got several spare beds.”
“No, I’m expected home.”
“I’ll walk a ways with you,” said Tom, and when he had left his chum at his house our hero returned by a street that would take him past the Foger residence. It was shrouded in darkness.
“Everybody’s cleared out,” said Tom in a low voice as he glance at the gloomy house. “Well, all I hope is that they don’t camp on our trail.”
CHAPTER VIII
ERADICATE WILL GO
“I guess everything is all ready,” remarked Tom,
“I can’t think of anything more to do,” said Ned.
“Bless my grip-sack!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, “if there is, someone else has got to do it. I’m tired to death! I never thought getting ready to go off on a simple little trip was so much work. We ought to have made the whole journey from start to finish in an airship, Tom, as we’ve done before.”
“It was hardly practical,” answered the young inventor. “I’m afraid we’ll be searching for this underground city for some time, and we’ll only need an airship or a dirigible balloon for short trips here and there. We’ve got to go a good deal by information the natives can furnish us, and we can’t get at them very well when sailing in the air.”
“That’s right,” agreed the eccentric man. “Well, I’m glad we’re ready to start.”
It was the evening of the day before they were to leave for New York, there to take steamer to a small port on the Mexican coast, and every one was busy putting the finishing details to the packing of his personal baggage.
The balloon, taken apart for easy transportation, had been sent on ahead, as had most of their supplies, weapons and other needed articles. All they would carry with them were handbags, containing some clothing.
“Then you’ve fully made up your mind not to go; eh Rad?” asked Tom of the colored man, who was busy helping them pack. “You won’t take a chance in the underground city?”
“No, Massa Tom, I’s gwine t’ stay home an’ look after yo’ daddy. ’Sides, Boomerang is gettin’ old, an’ when a mule gits along in yeahs him temper ain’t none ob de best.”
“Boomerang’s temper never was very good, anyhow,” said Tom. “Many’s the time he’s balked on you, Rad.”
“I know it, Massa Tom, but dat jest shows what strong character he done hab. Nobody kin manage dat air mule but me, an’ if I were to leave him, dere suah would be trouble. No, I cain’t go to no underground city, nohow.”
“But if you found some of the golden images you could buy another mule—two of ’em if you wanted that many,” said Ned, and a moment later he remembered that Tom did not want the colored man to know anything about the trip after gold. He had been led to believe that it was merely a trip to locate an ancient city.
“Did yo’ done say golden images?” asked Eradicate, his eyes big with wonder.
Ned glanced apologetically at Tom, and said, with a shrug of his shoulders:
“Well, I—”
“Oh, we might as well tell him,” interrupted the young inventor. “Yes, Rad, we expect to bring back some images of solid gold from the underground city. If you go along you might get some for your self. Of course there’s nothing certain about it, but—”
“How—how big am dem gold images, Massa Tom?” asked Eradicate eagerly.
“You’ve got him going now, Tom,” whispered Ned.
“How big?” repeated Tom musingly. “Hum, well, there’s one that is said to be bigger than three men, and there must be any number of smaller ones—say boy’s size, and from that on down to the real little ones, according to Mr. Illingway.”
“Real gold—yellow, gold images as big as a man,” said Eradicate in a dreamy voice. “An’—an’ some big as boys. By golly, Massa Tom, am yo’ suah ob dat?”
“Pretty sure. Why, Rad?”
“Cause I’s gwine wid yo’, dat’s why! I didn’t know yo’ all was goin’ after gold. My golly I’s gwine along! Look out ob mah way, ef yo’ please,—Mr. Damon. I’se gwine t’ pack up an’ go. Am it too late to git me a ticket, Massa Tom?”
“No, I guess there’s room on the ship. But say, Rad, I don’t want you to talk about this gold image part of it. You can say we’re going to look for an underground city, but no more, mind you!”
“Trust me, Massa Tom; trust me. I—I’ll jest say brass images, dat’s what I’ll say—brass! We’s gwine after brass, an’ not gold. By golly, I’ll fool ’em!”
“No, don’t say anything about the images—brass or gold,” cautioned Tom. “But, Rad, there’s another thing. We may run across the head-hunters down there in Mexico.”
“Head-Hunters? What’s dem?”
“They crush you, and chop off your head for an ornament.”
“Ha! Ha! Den I ain’t in no danger, Massa Tom. Nobody would want de head ob an old colored man fo’ an ornament. By golly! I’s safe from dem head-hunters! Yo’ can’t scare me dat way. I’s gwine after some of dem gold images, I is, an’ ef I gits some I’ll build de finest stable Boomerang ever saw, an’ he kin hab oats fo’ times a day. Dat’s what I’s gwine t’ do. Now look out ob mah way, Mr. Damon, ef yo’ pleases. I’s gwine t’ pack up,” and Eradicate shuffled off, chuckling to himself and muttering over and over again: “Gold images! Gold images! Images ob solid gold! Think ob dat! By golly!”
“Think he’ll give the secret away, Tom?” asked Ned.
“No. And I’m glad he’s going. Four makes a nice party, and Rad will make himself useful around camp. I’ve been sorry ever since he said he wouldn’t go, on account of the good cooking I’d miss, for Rad is sure a fine cook.”
“Bless my knife and fork, that’s so!” agreed Mr. Damon.
So complete were the preparations of our friends that nothing remained to do the next morning. Eradicate had his things all in readiness, and when good-byes had been said to Mr. Swift, and Mrs. Baggert, Tom, Ned and Mr. Damon, followed by the faithful colored man, set off for the depot to take the train for New York. There they were to take a coast steamer for Tampico, Mexico, and once there they could arrange for transportation into the interior.
The journey to New York was uneventful, but on arrival there they met with their first disappointment. The steamer on which they were to take passage had been delayed by a storm, and had only just arrived at her dock.
“It will take three days to get her cargo out, clean the boilers, load another cargo in her and get ready to sail,” the agent informed them.
“Then what are we to do?” asked Ned.
“Guess we’ll have to wait; that’s all,” answered Tom. “It doesn’t much matter. We’re in no great rush, and it will give us three days around New York. We’ll see the sights.”
“Bless my spectacles! Its an ill wind that blows nobody good,” remarked Mr. Damon, “I’ve been wanting to visit New York for some time, and here’s my chance.”
“We’ll go to a good hotel,” said Tom “and enjoy ourselves as long as we have to wait for the steamer.”
CHAPTER IX
“THAT LOOKED LIKE ANDY!”
What seemed at first as if it was going to be a tedious time of waiting, proved to be a delightful experience, for our friends found much to occupy their attention in New York.
Tom and Ned went to several theatrical performances, and wanted Mr. Damon to go with them, but the odd man said he wanted to visit several museums and other places of historical interest, so, while he was browsing around that way, the boys went to Bronx Park, and to Central Park, to
look at the animals, and otherwise enjoy themselves.
Eradicate put in his time in his own way. Much of it was spent in restaurants where chicken and pork chops figured largely on the bills of fare, for Tom had plentifully supplied the colored man with money, and did not ask an accounting.
“What else do you do besides eat, Rad?” asked Ned with a laugh, the second day of their stay in New York.
“I jest natchally looks in de jewelery store windows,” replied Eradicate with a grin on his honest black face. “I looks at all de gold ornaments, an’ I tries t’ figger out how much better mah golden images am gwine t’ be.”
“But don’t you go in, and ask what a gold image the size of a man would be worth!” cautioned Tom. “The jeweler might think you were crazy, and he might suspect something.”
“No, Massa Tom, I won’t do nuffin laik dat,” promised Eradicate. “But, Massa Tom, how much does yo’ ’spect a image laik dat would be worth?”
“Haven’t the least idea, Rad. Enough, though, to make you rich for the rest of your life.”
“Good land a’ massy!” gasped Eradicate, and he spent several hours trying to do sums in arithmetic on scraps of paper.
“Hurrah!” cried Tom, when, on the morning of the third day of their enforced stay in New York, a letter was sent up to his room by the hotel clerk.
“What’s up?” asked Ned. “I didn’t know that you sent Mary word that you were here.”
“I didn’t, you old scout!” cried Tom. “This is from the steamship company, saying that the steamer Maderia, on which we have taken passage for Mexico, will sail tonight at high tide. That’s the stuff! At last we’ll really get on our way.”
“Bless my notebook!” cried Mr. Damon. “I hoped we’d stay at least another day here. I haven’t seen half enough in the museums.”
“You’ll see stranger things than in any museum when we get to the underground city,” predicted Tom. “Come on, Ned, we’ll take in a moving picture show, have our last lunch in the big city, and then go aboard.”
So impatient were the travelers to go on board the steamer that they arrived several hours before the time set for sailing. Many others did the same thing, however, as supper was to be served on the Maderia.
Though it was within a few hours of leaving time there seemed so much to be done, such a lot of cargo to stow away, and so much coal to put into the bunkers, that Tom and the others might well be excused for worrying about whether or not they really would sail.
Big trucks drawn by powerful horses thundered down the long dock. Immense automobiles laden with boxes, barrels and bales puffed to the loading gangways. There was the puffing and whistling of the donkey engines as they hoisted into the big holds the goods intended for export.
At the side of the steamer were grimy coal barges, into which was dipped an endless chain of buckets carrying the coal to the bunkers. Stevadores were running here and there, orders and counter-orders were being given, and the confusion must have been maddening to any one not accustomed to it.
“Bless my walking stick!” exclaimed Mr. Damon. “We’ll never get off tonight, I’m positive.”
“Dat’s right,” agreed Eradicate. “Look at all dat coal dey’s got to load in.”
“Oh, they knew how to hustle at the last minute,” said Tom, and so it proved. Gradually the loading was finished. The coal barges were emptied and towed away. Truck after truck departed from the dock empty, having left its load in the interior of the steamer. One donkey engine after another ceased to puff, and the littered decks were cleared.
“Let’s watch the late-comers get aboard,” suggested Ned to Tom, when they had arranged things in their stateroom. The two boys and Mr. Damon had a large one to themselves and Eradicate had been assigned a small one not far from them.
“That’ll make the time pass until supper is ready,” agreed the young inventor, so they took their station near the main gangway and watched the passengers hurrying up. There were many going to make the trip to Mexico it seemed, and later the boys learned that a tourist agency had engaged passage for a number of its patrons.
“That fat man will never get up the slope unless some one pushes him,” remarked Ned, pointing to a very fleshy individual who was struggling up the steep gangplank, carrying a heavy valise. For the tide was almost at flood and the deck of the steamer was much elevated. Indeed it seemed at one moment as if the heavy-weight passenger would slide backward instead of getting aboard.
“Go give him a hand, Rad,” suggested Tom, and the colored man obligingly relieved the fat man of his grip, thereby enabling him to give all his attention to getting up the plank.
And it was this simple act on the part of Rad that was the cause of an uneasy suspicion coming to Tom and Ned. For, as Eradicate hastened to help the stout passenger, two others behind him, a man and a boy, started preciptably at the sight of the colored helper. So confused were they that it was noticed by Ned and his chum.
“Look at that!” said Ned in a low voice, their attention drawn from the fat man to the man and youth immediately behind him. “You’d think they were afraid of meeting Rad.”
“That’s right,” agreed Tom, for the man and youth had halted, and seemed about to turn back, Then the man, with a quick gesture, tossed a steamer rug he was carrying over his shoulder up so that it hid his face. At the same time the lad with him, evidently in obedience to some command, pulled his cap well down over his face and turned up the collar of a light overcoat he was wearing. He also seemed to shrink down, almost as if he were deformed.
“Say!” began Ned in wondering tones, “Tom, doesn’t that look like—”
“Andy Foger and his father!” burst out the young inventor in a horse whisper. “Ned, do you think it’s possible?”
“Hardly, and yet—”
Ned paused in his answer to look more closely at the two who had aroused the suspicions of himself and Tom. But they had now crowded so close up behind the fat man whom Eradicate was assisting up the plank, that he partly hid them from sight, and the action of the two in covering their faces further aided them in disguising themselves, if such was their intention.
“Oh, it can’t be!” declared Tom. “If they were going to follow us they wouldn’t dare go on the same steamer. It must be some one else. But it sure did look like Andy at first.”
“That’s what I say,” came from Ned. “But we can easily find out.”
“How?”
“Ask the purser to show us the passenger list. Even if they are down under some other names he’d know the Fogers if we described them to him.”
“That’s right, we’ll do it.”
By this time the fat man, who was being assisted by Eradicate had reached the top of the gang plank. He must have been expected, for several friends rushed to greet him, and for a moment there was a confusing little throng at the place where the passengers came abroad. Tom and Ned hurried up, intent on getting a closer view of the man and youth who seemed so anxious to escape observation.
But several persons got in their way, and the two mysterious ones taking advantage of the confusion, slipped down a companionway to their stateroom, so that when our two lads managed to extricate themselves from the throng around the fat man, who insisted on thanking them for allowing Eradicate to help him, it was too late to effect any identification, at least for the time being.
“But we’ll go to the purser,” said Tom. “If Andy and his father are on this steamer we want to know it.”
“That’s right,” agreed Ned.
Just then there was the usual cry:
“All ashore that’s going ashore! Last warning!”
A bell rang, there was a hoarse whistle, the rattle of the gangplank being drawn in, a quiver through the whole length of the ship, and Tom cried:
“We’re off!”
“Yes,” added Ned, “if Andy and his father are here it’s too late to leave them behind now!”
CHAPTER X
MYSTERIOUS PASSENGERS
Ned and Tom did not escape the usual commotion that always attends the sailing of a large steamer. The people on the dock were waving farewells to those on the boat, and those on the deck of the Maderia shook their handkerchiefs, their steamer rugs, their hands, umbrellas—in short anything to indicate their feelings. It was getting dark, but big electric lights made the dock and the steamer’s deck brilliantly aglow.
The big whistle was blowing at intervals to warn other craft that the steamer was coming out of her slip. Fussy little tugs were pushing their blunt noses against the sides of the Maderia to help her and, in brief, there was not a little excitement.
“Bless my steamer chair!” exclaimed Mr. Damon. “We’re really off at last! And now for the land of—”
“Hush!” exclaimed Tom, who stood near the odd gentleman. “You’re forgetting. Some one might hear you.”
“That’s so, Tom. Bless my soul! I’ll keep quiet after this.”
“Mah golly!” gasped Eradicate as he saw the open water between the ship and the deck, “I can’t git back now if I wanter—but I doan’t wanter. I hope yo’ father takes good care ob Boomerang, Massa Tom.”
“Oh, I guess he will. But come on, Ned, we’ll go to the purser’s office now.”
“What for? Is something wrong?” asked Mr. Damon.
“No, we just want to see if—er—if some friends of ours are on board,” replied the young inventor, with a quick glance at his chum.
“Very well,” assented Mr. Damon. “I’ll wait for you on deck here. It’s quite interesting to watch the sights of the harbor.”
As for these same sights they possessed no attractions for the two lads at present. They were too intent on learning whether or not their suspicions regarding the Fogers were correct.
“Now if they are on board,” said Tom, as they made their way to the purser’s office, “it only means one thing—that they’re following us to get at the secret of the city of gold,” and Tom whispered this last, even though there seemed to be no one within hearing, for nearly all the passengers were up on deck.
The Tom Swift Megapack Page 131