Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders

As Professor Bumper expected to do considerable excavating in order to locate the buried

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city, or cities, as the case might be, he had to contract for a number of Indian diggers and laborers. These could be hired in Copan, it was said.

The plan, therefore, was to travel by canoes during the less heated parts of the day, and tie up at night, making camp on shore in the net-protected tents. As for the Indians, they did not seem to mind the bites of the insects. They sometimes made a smudge fire, Val Jacinto had said, but that was all.

“Well, we haven’t seen anything of Beecher and his friends,” remarked the young inventor as they were about to start.

“No, he doesn’t seem to have arrived,” agreed Professor Bumper. “We’ll get ahead of him, and so much the better.

“Well, are we all ready to start?” he continued, as he looked over the little flotilla which carried his party and his goods.

“The sooner the better!” cried Tom, and Ned fancied his chum was unusually eager.

“I guess he wants to make good before Beecher gets the chance to show Mary Nestor what he can do,” thought Ned. “Tom sure is after that idol of gold.”

“You may start, Se�or Jacinto,” said the professor, and the guide called something in Indian

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dialect to the rowers. Lines were cast off and the boats moved out into the stream under the influence of the sturdy paddlers.

“Well, this isn’t so bad,” observed Ned, as he made himself comfortable in his canoe. “How about it, Tom?”

“Oh, no. But this is only the beginning.”