entage on all new hands that
are hired."

Tom kept on with his search, always hoping he might find some hidden
means of getting out of the tunnel. But as the days went by, and he
discovered nothing, he began to despair.

"The queer thing about it," mused Tom, "is what has become of the ten
men. Even if they did find some secret means of leaving, what has
become of them? They couldn't completely disappear, and they have
families and relatives that would make some sort of fuss if they were
out of sight completely this long. I wonder if any inquiries have been
made about them?"

When Tom came off duty he asked the Titus brothers whether or not any
of the relatives of the missing men had come to seek news about them.
None had.

"Then," said Tom, "you can depend on it the men are all right, and
their relatives know it. I wonder how it would do to make inquiries at
that end? Question some of the relatives."

"Bless my hat hand!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who was at the conference. "I
never thought of that. I'll do it for you."

The odd man had gotten his quinine gathering business well under way
now, and he had some spare time. So, with an interpreter who could be
trusted, he went to the native village whence had come nearly all of
the ten missing men. But though Mr. Damon found some of their
relatives, the latter, with shrugs of their shoulders, declared they
had seen nothing of the ones sought.

"And they didn't seem to worry much, either," reported Mr. Damon.

"Then we can depend on it," remarked Tom, "that the men are all right
and their relatives know it. There's some conspiracy here."

So it seemed. But who was at the bottom of it?

"I can't figure out where Blakeson & Grinder come in," said Job Titus.
"They would have an object in crippling us, but they seem to be working
from the financial end, trying to make us fail there. I haven't seen
any of their sneaking agents around here lately, and as for Waddington
he seems to have stayed up North."

Tom resumed his vigil in the tunnel, poking here and there, but with
little success. His week was about up, and he would soon have to resume
his character as powder expert, for the debris was nearly all cleaned
up, and another blast would have to be fired shortly.

"Well, I'm stumped!" Tom admitted, the day when he was to come on duty
for the last time as a pretended foreman. "I've hunted all over, and I
can't find any secret passage."

It was warm in the tunnel, an