ough, where I saw Waddington's face. Or did I imagine it?"

He got a long pole and a powerful flash lamp, and when he had a chance,
unobserved, he poked around in the vicinity where he had seen the face.

But there was only solid rock.

"It must have been a dream," Tom concluded. "I've been thinking too
much about this business. I'll have to give up. I can't solve the
mystery of the missing men."

The next day, much disappointed, he resumed his own character as
explosive expert, and prepared for another blast. The net result of his
watch was that he became suspicious of Serato, and so informed the
Titus Brothers.

"Oh, but you're mistaken," said Job "We have had him for years, on
other contracts in Peru, and we trust him."

"Well, I don't," Tom said, but he had to let it go at that.

Another blast was set off, but it was not very successful.

"The rock seems to be getting harder the farther in we go," commented
Walter Titus. "We're not up to where we ought to be."

"I'll have to look into it," answered Tom. "I may have to change the
powder mixture. Guess I'll go up the mountain a way, and see if there
are any outcroppings of rock there that would give me an idea of what
lies underneath."

Accordingly, while the men in the tunnel were clearing away the rock
loosened by the blast, Tom, one day, taking his electric rifle with
him, went up the mountain under which the big bore ran.

He located, by computation, the spot beneath which the end of the
tunnel then was, and began collecting samples of the outcropping ledge.
He wanted to analyze these pieces of stone later. Koku was with him,
and, giving the giant a bag of stones to carry, Tom walked on rather
idly.

It was a wild and desolate region in which he found himself on the side
of the mountain. Beyond him stretched towering and snow-clad peaks, and
high in the air were small specks, which he knew to be condors,
watching with their eager eyes for their offal food.

As Tom and Koku made their way along the mountain trail they came
unexpectedly upon an Indian workman who was gathering herbs and bark,
an industry by which many of the natives added to their scanty
livelihood. The woman was familiar with the appearance of the white
men, and nodded in friendly fashion.

Tom passed on, thinking of many things, when he was suddenly startled
by a scream from the woman. It was a scream of such terror and agony
that, for the moment, Tom was stunned into inactivity