blasts before th' min could git out th' way!
Bad cess t' th' imps thot did this!" and he banged his big fist down on
the table.

Since the trouble began a guard had been always posted around the
tunnel entrance and surrounding buildings, and this night the patrol
was doubled. Tom, Mr. Damon and the two Titus brothers sat up quite
late, talking over plans and ideas.

Professor Bumper went to bed early, as he said he was going to set off
before sunrise to make a search for the lost city.

"I regard him as more or less of a visionary," said Mr. Job Titus; "but
he seems a harmless gentleman, and we'll do all we can to help him."

"Surely," agreed his brother.

The night was not marked by any disturbance, and after breakfast, Tom,
under the guidance of the Titus brothers, looked over the tunnel with a
view to making his first experiment with the new explosive.

The tunnel was being driven straight into the face of one of the
smaller ranges of the Andes Mountains. It was to be four miles in
length, and when it emerged on the other side it would enable trains to
make connections between the two railroads, thus tapping a rich and
fertile country.

On the site of the tunnel, which was two days' mule travel east from
Rimac, the Titus brothers had assembled their heavy machinery. They had
brought some of their own men, including Tim Sullivan, with them, but
the other labor was that of Peruvian Indians, with a native foreman,
Serato, over them.

There were engines, boilers, dynamos, motors, diamond drills, steam
shovels and a miniature railway, with mules as the motive power. A
small village had sprung up at the tunnel mouth, and there was a
general store, besides many buildings for the sleeping and eating
quarters of the laborers, as well as places where the white men could
live. Their quarters were some distance from the native section.

Powder, supplies, in fact everything save what game could be obtained
in the forest, or what grains or fruits were brought in by natives
living near by, had to be brought over the rough trail. But Titus
Brothers had a large experience in engineering matters in wild and
desolate countries, and they knew how to be as comfortable as possible.

Mr. Damon learned that one of the districts whence his company had been
in the habit of getting quinine was distant a day's journey over the
mountain, so he decided to make the trip, with a native guide, and see
if he could get at the bottom of t