CHAPTER XI.
JACK AND HIS FRIEND GASTONG.
Lieutenant Gordon sprang to his feet when he saw the boys emerging fromthe jungle, and stood waiting, his hand on the porch door, while theyentered.
"You've given me a good scare," he said.
"There's been a scare comin' to everybody to-day," grinned Jimmie, "evento the dagoes in the bomb chamber."
"The bomb chamber," repeated the lieutenant. "What have you youngstersbeen up to? Where did you find a bomb room?"
"Back here in the cellar of a ruined temple," Jimmie started to explain,but the lieutenant stopped him.
"Suppose we begin at the beginning," he suggested.
"That is the beginning," Ned replied, "the beginning of the story after weleft the cottage in the night."
Then Ned related the story of the finding of the ruined temple and whathad taken place there.
"But how did you boys get to the temple?" asked the lieutenant, then. "Thelast I heard of you one of the plotters had you in tow, and Jack wasrunning off after you in the cook's clothing. Where did you boys connectwith each other?"
"Hold on!" Jack broke in. "Where did the cook connect with you? I presumehe is the boy that brought you here?"
"Sure," said the cook. "I had no intention of remaining here. I knew aboutwhat would happen to you boys, and so started on a run for a 'phone, theidea being to reach the lieutenant. I was mistaken for Jack, and held upby a man who must have been left to spy about the cottage, but I got achance to hand him one and got to a 'phone. Since then the lieutenant hasmelted a thousand miles of wire making inquiries for you."
"I'm glad we all got out before the lieutenant got to us," Jimmie cut in."I guess this bunch of Boy Scouts don't need any United States army to pryus out of our troubles. We almost got here first," he added, with aprovoking grin.
"When you get done congratulating yourselves," laughed the lieutenant,"perhaps you will tell me how you boys got to the ruined temple."
"I cannot tell a lie," cried Jack, "I did it. While I was chasing myselfalong through the dust kicked up by the choo-choo car the boys rolled awayin, I came upon a youth who held me up in the middle of the road and askedhow I'd like to continue my run against time in an airship. He was acheeky looking chap, and I felt like giving him a poke in the breather,when he grinned and gave me the Boy Scout high sign."
"You never found a Boy Scout out here in the jungle?" exclaimed Gordon.
"You bet I did," Jack continued. "If you don't believe it, go back thereto the cookerie. He's filling up on the beans I was expecting to getmyself. Call him my dear Gastong, and he'll come."
"Cripes!" cried Jimmie, and he was away in a second, attacking the greatdish of pork and beans which stood on the table in the cookroom.
"Gastong," continued Jack, looking longingly into the cook room, "was bornon the Isthmus, and knows all about conditions here, but he's tooaristocratic to mix with the inhabitants for any great length of time.He's got the highfaluting blood all right, but he is shy of the skads, sohe protects his dignity and pride of race by bumming his way over theworld, like an English milord with a ruined castle and an overdraft at thebank. He learned to talk United States in New York, and got to be a BoyScout in Philadelphia."
"Details of pedigree and biography later," said Ned. "Did he have anairship?"
"He had the next best thing to it," Jack replied. "He had a motor carwhich he was running for some gazabo over in Gatun. He was out for hishealth when he saw the boys shooting by in a car with a man he knew to bea crook, and was about to follow on and see what was doing when he saw mespeeding up the right of way, looking as if I was obliged to catch themachine ahead.
"He left his car around the corner of the hill and met me on foot, withabout a dozen Boy Scout signs on tap and a score of badges of honor hiddenaway in his ragged clothes. He told me what he thought of the man who wasrunning the car ahead, and I told him how he would be patrol leader on theGolden Streets just because he was a Boy Scout and was there at that time,so we got into his machine and followed the crook in the lead."
"What about the tramps?" laughed Frank.
"When we saw the boys go into that old house, we knew there was somethingcrooked going on, and Gastong said to me that if I wouldn't give him awayhe would put me wise to a bunch of hoboes that were camping out in thejungle, too lazy to work, and just about ripe for a scrap. So we roundedup the hoboes and made a break for the old house."
"That's all," cried Frank.
"And got there just in time to see Frank and his friends going to thefloor with a lot of has-been wrestlers the man in charge of the house hadprecipitated on them," Jack went on.
"Where are the people who were in the house?" asked Ned.
"Up in the air," cried Frank. "Say, they got out so fast that they melteda path all down the hill to the motor car. We ought to have fixed that soit wouldn't run."
"Where are the hoboes?" asked the lieutenant.
"Gone back to camp, wearied out with their exertions," laughed Jack. "Theycame to the Isthmus to work on the canal, but found the climate didn'tagree with them, so they are taking the rest cure. I was a find for them,all right. They've got money enough to live on for a month, and I've gotto wire Dad for more soap."
"It is a pleasure to bump into a nice, bright little boy like you,"grinned Jimmie, standing in the doorway with a great slice of bread in hishand. "Here you had an army big enough to surround that old ruin, an' yetyou went an' let the fellers get away. An' we've been blowed up, an'locked up, an' chased in motor cars, an' gone without our eatin's, an'nothin' doin'. Up to date we're about as useless on the Isthmus as anelephant's ear on an apple pie--big enough to be in the way, but not goodenough to become part of the diversion."
There was now a call from the cook, and there was no further talk of thesituation for the next half hour. The lieutenant was fully as active atthe table as the others, and the newcomer, Gastong, as Jack persisted incalling him, seemed to forget that he had invaded the kitchen half an hourbefore and paid his respects to a pan of baked beans. After the meal acouncil was called on the porch.
"You all understand," Lieutenant Gordon said, "that you cannot remain herewithout being constantly on guard?"
"Of course," Frank said.
"And you know that the men who have been seen in connection with this plotwill now disappear from the game and new men take their places?"
"That is the worst feature of the case," Ned said, thoughtfully. "Mytheory worked first rate up to a certain point. I was put in communicationwith some of the underlings in the plot, just as I planned I should be,but they all got away. The men who are at the head of this conspiracy willnot permit the fellows who have appeared in one of the roles to appearagain. We haven't gained a thing."
"Except a more definite knowledge of the purposes of the plotters,"suggested the lieutenant. "We know now that it is the Gatun dam that isthreatened, and that the newspaper building in New York will soon become amass of ruins unless some action is taken at once."
"Also we know where they made their bombs," said Jack.
"But we don't know where they will make them in future," said Frank.
"Well, what about staying here?" asked the lieutenant.
"We are doubtless as safe here as anywhere," Jack suggested.
"Of course I want to stay here," the irrepressible Jimmie put in. "Ihaven't got on speakin' terms with the scenery yet."
"There may be another bomb under the house this minute," Frank said,starting up from his chair. "The place has been alone all day."
The boys swarmed out of the porch like a colony of bees looking for a newhome, and while some crawled under the floor of the cottage, otherspenetrated the jungle for some distance in every direction. There were nosuspicious objects under the floor, and the jungle seemed to present apeaceful attitude.
"What about having the old temple and the deserted house watched for atime?" asked Jack, as all returned to the porch.
"What do you thin
k of that, Ned?" asked the lieutenant.
"If they are watched at all," was the reply, "it is my idea that the workshould be done very secretly, and no arrests made there."
"Say," Glen Howard remarked, "there was a dwarf in the house named Jumbo.He didn't seem to like the gang he was training with, and I thought wemight be able to get him to keep an eye out for us."
"I'll go and see him," Jimmie said.
"Yes, go walking right up to the front door and knock, and say you wouldlike to sell the lady of the house a carpet sweeper, and you'll get apiece of lead in your anatomy," Jack said.
"All right," Jimmie grinned, "when I go to call on Jumbo I'll get anairship an' drop down out of the blue into the chimney. Say, you fellersmake me tired. Do you really want to get this Jumbo person into thegame?"
"It might not be a bad idea," Ned replied.
"All right, then," grinned Jimmie, "I'll have me private secretary lookhim up."
"You might have him look up my emerald necklace, while he is about it,"laughed Frank. "I can't afford to lose that."
"As I have before remarked," said the lieutenant, "find Pedro and you'llfind the necklace."
"Unless he's soaked it," Frank put in.
About dark Lieutenant Gordon arose to go back to Ancon and Jimmie andPeter Fenton moved down the little path with him.
"Here," the lieutenant said. "You boys mustn't be seen with me. You arenot supposed to be connected with the secret service in any way."
"No, I suppose not," chuckled Jimmie. "I suppose they come here an' putbombs under our cottage, an' lug us off to deserted houses, an' all that,thinkin' we're down here in search of a new kind of butterfly. If anybodyshould ask you, the plotters know just as much about our arrangement as wedo."
Ned, who had been following along behind the others, broke into a laugh.
"The boy has the situation sized up correctly," he said.
"Then come along," growled the lieutenant. "Where are you going?"
"We're going to have a look at the Culebra cut," was the reply. "You saidwe might ramble about the Isthmus all we wanted to."
"But why go with me, and at night?" asked the officer.
"We want to see the work going on under electricity," Peter replied.
"Let them go," advised Ned. "If they can't take care of themselves it istime we found it out."
The fact was that the boys had learned from the cook that the lieutenanthad come to the vicinity of the cottage in an automobile, and they thoughtthis a fine chance to secure a ride to the famous excavation. There was atleast another member of the party who seemed to think just as they did,for when the machine purred out into the rough road leading from the pathto Gatun the slight figure of Gastong vaulted into the back seat with theboys and motioned to them to remain quiet.
"What's up?" whispered Jimmie.
"Perhaps he wouldn't let me go," suggested the other.
"You've ducked an' dodged so long that you're afraid of everybody,"returned Jimmie. "I guess any of our friends can go where we can."
Gastong, however, had not given the true reason for wishing to keep hispresence in the car a secret from the lieutenant. The boy had been soconsiderately treated by the Boy Scouts that he was infatuated with them,and wished to serve them in some important way.
Not having any steady occupation or place of residence, the boy had beendriven about alike by the native authorities and the army officers untilhe was, as Jimmie declared, afraid of any one having authority. He hadbeen treated as an equal by the boys, and was determined to serve them. Hehad heard the talk of enlisting the dwarf, Jumbo, in the cause representedby the secret service men, and was now resolved to return to the desertedhouse and look the little fellow up.
Therefore, when the machine drew near to the house which the lads hadvisited that day under such unfavorable circumstances he dropped out andwas soon lost in the shadows of the jungle.
"What do you think of that?" Jimmie demanded.
"I think he can do a better job there than either of us could," was thereply.
"Well, when we come back from the cut," Jimmie said, "I'm goin' to dropoff here an' see how the chump is gettin' along."
Looking back, they saw a light flare up in the house, and then die out!