“Then we’ve failed!” cried Tom bitterly.
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“Not yet,” said Professor Bumper. “If I can not unearth that buried city I may find another in this wonderland. I shall not give up.”
“Hark! What’s that noise?” asked Tom, as they approached the entrance to the cave.
“Sounds like a great wind blowing,” commented Ned.
It was. As they stood in the entrance they looked out to find a fierce storm raging. The wind was sweeping down the rocky trail, the rain was falling in veritable bucketfuls from the overhanging cliff, and deafening thunder and blinding lightning roared and flashed.
“Surely you would not drive us out in this storm,” said Professor Bumper to his former rival.
“You can not stay in the cave! You must get out!” was the answer, as a louder crash of thunder than usual seemed to shake the very mountain.
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Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII
ENTOMBED ALIVE
FOR an instant Tom and his friends paused at the entrance to the wonderful cavern, and looked at the raging storm. It seemed madness to venture out into it, yet they had been driven from the cave by those who had every right of discovery to say who, and who should not, partake of its hospitality.
“We can’t go out into that blow!” cried Ned. “It’s enough to loosen the very mountains!”
“Let’s stay here and defy them!” murmured Tom. “If the — if what we seek — is here we have as good a right to it as they have.”
“We must go out,” said Professor Bumper simply. “I recognize the right of my rival to dispossess us.”