第42章

"Get those missing men back.That will break the hoodoo, and the others will come back to work.Then we'll get on the trail of Wadding ton, or Blakeson & Grinder, and put a stop to this business.We know their secret now.""You mean to get the men out of the secret valley, Tom?""Yes.There must be some other way into it than down the rock where we were.How about it, Masni?" and he inquired as to the valley.The Indian woman gave Tom to understand that there was another entrance.

"Well, close up this shaft now before some one sees us at it--the bearded man, for example," Tom suggested.He took another look down into the tunnel, which was now deserted on account of the strike, and then Masni pressed on the mechanism that worked the stone.She showed Tom how to do it.

"Just a counter-balanced rock operating on the same principle as does a window," Tom explained, after a brief examination."Probably some of the old Indian tribes made this shaft for ceremonial purposes.They never dreamed we would drive a tunnel along at the bottom of it.The shaft probably opened into a cave, and one of our blasts made it part of the tunnel.Well, this is part of the secret, anyhow.Much obliged to you, Masni!"The Indian woman had indeed revealed valuable information.They covered the secret rock with brush, as it had been, hid the rope and came away.But Tom knew how to find the place again.

Events moved rapidly from then on.The Titus brothers were more than astonished when Tom told them what he had learned.Masni had told him how to get into the secret valley by a round about, but easy trail, and thither Tom, the contractors, Mr.Damon and some of the white tunnel workers went the next day.

The sequestered men, taken completely by surprise, tried to bolt when they saw that they were discovered, and then, shamefacedly enough,admitted their part in the trick.

They would not, however, reveal who had helped them escape from the tunnel.Threats and promises of rewards were alike unavailing, but Tom and his employers knew well enough who it was.The tunnel workers seemed rather tired of living in comparative luxury and idleness, and agreed to come back to their labors.

They packed up their few belongings, mostly cooking pots and pans, and marched out of the valley to the village at Rimac.

And so the strike was broken.

The reappearance of the missing men, in better health and spirits than when they went away, acted like magic.The other men, who had missed their wages, crowded back into the shaft, and the sounds of picks and shovels were heard again in the tunnel.

Whether the missing ones told the real story, or whether they made up some tale to account for their absence, Tom and his friends could not learn.Nor did the bearded man (if he it were who had helped in the plot), nor any representative of Blakeson & Grinder appear.The work on the tunnel was resumed as if nothing had happened.But Tom arranged a bright light so it would reflect on the spot in the roof where the moving rock was, so that if the evil face of the bearded man, or of Waddington, appeared there again, it would quickly be seen.A search of the neighborhood, and diligent inquiries, failed to disclose the presence of any of the plotters.

And then, as if Fate was not making it hard enough for the tunnel contractors, they encountered more trouble.It was after Tom had set off a big blast that Tim Sullivan, after inspecting what had happened, came out to ask.

"I soy, Mr.Swift, why didn't yez use more powder?""More powder!" cried Tom."Why, this is the most I have ever set off." "Then somethin's wrong, sor.Fer there's only a little rock down.Comean' see fer yersilf."

Tom hastened in.As the foreman had said, the effect of the blast was small indeed.Only a little rock had been shaled off.Tom picked up some of this and took it outside for examination.

"Why, it's harder than the hardest flint we've found yet," he said."Thepowder didn't make any impression on it at all.I'll have to use terrific charges."This was done, but with little better effect.The explosive, powerful as it was, ate only a little way into the rock.Blast after blast had the same poor effect.

"This won't do," said Job Titus, despairingly, one day."We aren't making any progress at all.There's a half mile of this rock, according to my calculations, and at this rate we'll be six months getting through it.By that time our limit will be up, and we'll be forced to give up the contract What can we do, Tom Swift?"