Chapter XXIV
The Hidden City
Gathered beyond the mouth of the tunnel, far enough away so that thewind of the great blast would not bowl them over like ten pins, stoodTom Swift and his friends. In his hand Tom held the battery box, thesetting of the switch in which would complete the electrical circuitand set off the hundreds of pounds of explosive buried deep in the hardrock.
"Are all the men out?" asked the young inventor of Tim Sullivan, whohad charge of this important matter. Tim was in sole charge as foremannow, having picked up enough of the Indian language to get alongwithout an interpreter.
"All out, sor," Tim responded. "Yez kin fire whin ready, Mr. Swift."
It was a portentous moment. No wonder Tom Swift hesitated. In a sensehe and his friends, the contractors, had staked their all on a singlethrow. If this blast failed it was not likely that another wouldsucceed, even if there should be time to prepare one.
The time limit had almost expired, and there was still a half mile ofhard rock between the last heading and the farther end of the bigtunnel. If the blast succeeded enough rock might be brought down toenable the work to go on, by using a night and day shift of men. Then,too, there was the chance that the hard strata of rock would come to anend and softer stone, or easily-dug dirt, be encountered.
"Well, we may as well have it over with," said Tom in a low voice.Every one was very quiet--tensely quiet.
The young inventor looked up to see Professor Bumper observing him.
"Why, Professor!" Tom exclaimed, "I thought you had gone off to themountains again, looking for the lost city."
"I am going, Tom, very soon. I thought I would stop and see the effectof your big blast. This is my last trip. If I do not find the hiddencity of Pelone this time, I am going to give up."
"Give up!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my fountain pen!"
"Oh, not altogether," went on the bald-headed scientist. "I mean Iwill give up searching in this part of Peru, and go elsewhere. But Iwill never completely give up the search, for I am sure the hidden cityexists somewhere under these mountains," and he looked off toward thesnow-covered peaks of the Andes.
Tom looked at the battery box. He drew a long breath, and said:
"Here she goes!"
There was a contraction of his hand as he pressed the switch over, andthen, for perhaps a half second, nothing happened. Just for an instantTom feared something had gone wrong that the electric current hadfailed, or that the wires had become disconnected--perhaps through someaction of the plotting rivals.
And then, gently at first, but with increasing intensity, the solidground on which they were all standing seemed to rock and sway, toheave itself up, and then sink down.
"Bless my--" began Mr. Damon, but he got no further, for a mighty gustof wind swept out of the tunnel, and blew off his hat. That gust wasbut a gentle breeze, though, compared to what followed. For there camesuch a rush of air that it almost blew over those standing near theopening of the great shaft driven under the mountain. There was a roaras of Niagara, a howling as in the Cave of the Winds, and they all bentto the blast.
Then followed a dull, rumbling roar, not as loud as might have beenexpected, but awful in its intensity. Deep down under the veryfoundations of the earth it seemed to rumble.
"Run! Run back!" cried Tom Swift. "There's a back-draft and the powdergas is poisonous. Stoop down and run back!"
They understood what he meant. The vapor from the powder was deadly ifbreathed in a confined space. Even in the open it gave one a terribleheadache. And Tom could see floating out of the tunnel the first wispsof smoke from the fired explosive. It was lighter than air, and wouldrise. Hence the necessity, as in a smoke-filled room, of keeping lowdown where the air is purer.
They all rushed back, stooping low. Mr. Damon stumbled and fell, butKoku picked him up and, tucking him under one arm, as he might havedone a child, the giant followed Tom to a place of safety.
"Well, Tom, it went off all right," said Mr. Job Titus, as they stoodamong the shacks of the workmen and watched the smoke pouring out ofthe tunnel mouth.
"Yes, it went off. But did it do the work? That's what we've got tofind out."
They waited impatiently for the deadly vapor to clear out of thetunnel. It was more than an hour before they dared venture in, and thenit was with smarting eyes and puckered throats. But the atmosphere wasquickly clearing.
"Switch on the lights," cried Tom to Tim, for the illuminating currenthad been cut off when the blast was fired. "Let's see what we'vebrought down."
Following the eager young inventor came the contractors, some of thewhite workers, Mr. Damon and Professor Bumper. The little scientistsaid he would like to see the effect of the big blast.
Along they stumbled over pieces of rock, large and small.
"Some force to it," observed Job Titus, as he observed pieces of rockclose to the mouth of the tunnel. "If it only exerted the force theother way, against the face of the rock, as well as back this way,we'll be all right."
"The greater force was in the opposite direction," Tom said.
A big search-light had been got ready to flash on the place where theblast had been set off. This was to enable them to see how much rockhad been torn away. And, as they reached the place where the flint-likewall had been, they saw a strange sight.
"Bless my strawberry short-cake!" gasped Mr. Damon. "What a hole!"
"It is a hole," admitted Tom, in a low voice. "A bigger hole than Idared hope for."
For a great cave, seemingly, had been blown in the face of the rockwall that had hindered the progress of the tunnel. A great black voidconfronted them.
"Shift the light over this way," called Tom to Walter Titus, who wasoperating it. "I can't see anything."
The great beam of light flashed into the void, and then a murmur of awecame from every throat.
For there, revealed in the powerful electrical rays, was what seemed tobe a long tunnel, high and wide, as smooth as a paved street. And oneither side of it were what appeared to be buildings, some low, otherstaller. And, branching off from the main tunnel, or street, were otherpassages, also lined with buildings, some of which had crumbled toruins.
"Bless my dictionary!" cried Mr. Damon. "What is it?"
Professor Bumper had crawled forward over the mass of broken rock. Hegazed as if fascinated at what the searchlight showed, and then hecried:
"I have found it! I have found it! The hidden city of Pelone!"