“No, and that may be just the reason they are more likely to be right,” returned Tom. “Legends handed down from one grandfather to another go back a good many hundred years. If they were written they might be destroyed as the professor’s map was. Somehow or other, though I can’t tell why, I begin to see daylight ahead of us.”
“I wish I did,” remarked Ned.
“Here comes Goosal I think,” murmured Tom, and he pointed to an Indian, bent with the weight of years, who, led by Tal’s wife, was slowly approaching the hut.
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Chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI
THE CAVERN
“NOW Goosal can tell you,” said Tal, evidently pleased that he had, in a measure, solved the problem caused by the burning of the professor’s map. “Goosal very old Indian. He know old stories — legends — very old.”
“Well, if he can tell us how to find the buried city of Kurzon and the — the things in it,” said Tom, “he’s all right!”
The aged Indian proceeded slowly toward the hut where the impatient youths awaited him.
“I know what you seek in the buried city,” remarked Tal.
“Do you?” cried Tom, wondering if some one had indiscreetly spoken of the idol of gold.
“Yes you want pieces of rock, with strange writings on them, old weapons, broken pots. I know. I have helped white men before.”
“Yes, those are the things we want,” agreed
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Tom, with a glance at his chum. “That is — some of them. But does your wife’s grandfather talk our language?”
“No, but I can tell you what he says.”
By this time the old man, led by “Mrs. Tal” — as the young men called the wife of the Indian they had helped — entered the hut. He seemed nervous and shy, and glanced from Tom and Ned to his grandson-in-law, as the latter talked rapidly in the Indian dialect. Then Goosal made answer, but what it was all about the boys could not tell.
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