ty well now," said Blake. "I suppose you will
soon be leaving the Canal--and us."

"Not until I see you film the big slide," he replied. "I wish you
all success."

"To say nothing of the Canal," put in Joe.

"To say nothing of the Canal," repeated the Spaniard, and he
looked at the boys in what Blake said afterward he thought was a
strange manner.

"Then you haven't altogether gotten over your suspicions of him?"
asked Joe.

"No, and yet I don't know why either of us should hold any against
him," went on Joe's chum. "Certainly he has been a good friend
and companion to us, and he has learned quickly."

"Oh, yes, he's smart enough. Well, we haven't much more to do
here. A slide, if we can get one, and some pictures below Gatun
Dam, and we can go back North."

"Yes," agreed Blake.

"Seen anything of Alcando's alarm clock model lately?" asked Joe,
after a pause.

"Not a thing, and I haven't heard it tick. Either he has given up
working on it, or he's so interested in the pictures that he has
forgotten it."

Several more days passed, gloomy, unpleasant days, for it rained
nearly all the time. Then one morning, sitting in the cabin of the
tug anchored near Gold Hill, there came an alarm.

"A land slide! A big slide in Culebra Cut! Emergency orders!"

"That means us!" cried Blake, springing to his feet, and getting
out a camera. "It's our chance, Joe."

"Yes! Too bad, but it had to be, I suppose," agreed his chum, as
he slipped into a mackintosh, for it was raining hard.

CHAPTER XIX

JOE'S PLIGHT

From outside the cabin of the tug came a confused series of
sounds. First there was the swish and pelt of the rain, varied as
the wind blew the sheets of water across the deck. But, above it
all, was a deep, ominous note--a grinding, crushing noise, as of
giant rocks piling one on top of the other, smashing to powder
between them the lighter stones.

"What will happen?" asked Mr. Alcando, as he watched Joe and Blake
making ready. They seemed to work mechanically--slipping into
rubber boots and rain coats, and, all the while, seeing that the
cameras and films were in readiness. They had brought some
waterproof boxes to be used in case of rain--some they had found
of service during the flood on the Mississippi.

"No one knows what will happen," said Blake grimly. "But we're
going to get some pictures before too much happens."

"Out there?" asked the Spaniard, with a motion of his hand toward
the s