TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS

V >> Victor Appleton >> TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Tom did not sleep well that night. He tossed from side to side
on the bed of boughs, and once or twice got up to replenish the
fire, which had burned low. His companions were in deep slumber.

"I wonder what time it is?" mused Tom, when he had been up the
third time to throw wood on the blaze. "Must be near morning." He
looked at his watch, and was somewhat startled to see that it was
only a little after twelve. Somehow it seemed much later.

As he was putting the timepiece back into his pocket the lad
looked around at the dark and gloomy mountains, amid which they
were encamped. As his gaze wandered toward the peak of the one on
the side of which the tent was pitched, he gave a start of
surprise.

For, coming down a place where, that afternoon, Tom had noticed
a sort of indefinite trail was a figure in white. A tall, waving
figure, which swayed this way and that--a figure which halted and
then came on again.

"I wonder--I wonder if that can be a wisp of fog?" mused the
young inventor. He rubbed his eyes, thinking it might be a
swirling of the night mist or a defect of vision. Then, as he saw
more plainly, he noticed the thing in white rushing toward him.

"It's the phantom--the phantom!" cried Tom, aloud. "It's the
thing the miner saw! We're on Phantom Mountain now!"

CHAPTER XIV--WARNED BACK

Tom's cries awakened the sleepers in the tent. Mr. Damon was
the first to rush out.

"Bless my nightcap, Tom!" he cried. "What is it? What has
happened? Are we attacked by a mountain lion?"

For answer the young inventor pointed up the mountain, to
where, in the dim light from a crescent moon, there stood boldly
revealed, the figure in white.

"Bless--bless my very existence!" cried the odd man. "What is
it, Tom?"

"The phantom," was the quiet answer. "Watch it, and see what it
does."

By this time Mr. Jenks and Mr. Parker had joined Tom and Mr.
Damon. The four diamond seekers stood gazing at the apparition.
And, as they looked, the thing in white, seemingly too tall for
any human being, slid slowly forward, with a gliding motion. Then
it raised its long, white arms, and waved them threateningly at
the adventurers.

"It's motioning us to go back," said Mr. Parker in an awed
whisper. "It doesn't want us to go any farther."

"Very likely," agreed Tom, coolly. "But we're not going to be
frightened by anything like that; are we?"

"Not much!" exclaimed Mr. Jenks. "I expected this. A ghost
can't drive me back from getting my rights from those scoundrels!"

"Suppose it uses a revolver to back up its demand?" asked the
scientist.

"Wait until it does," answered Mr. Jenks. But the figure in
white evidently had no such intentions. It came on a little
distance farther, still waving the long arms threateningly, and
then it suddenly disappeared, seeming to dissolve in the misty
shadows of the night.

"Bless my suspenders!" cried Mr. Damon. "That's a very
strange proceeding! Very strange! What do you make of it, Tom?"

"It is evidently some man dressed up in a sheet," declared Mr.
Jenks. "I expected as much."

"The work of those diamond makers; do you think?" continued Mr.
Damon.

"I believe so," answered Tom, slowly, for he was trying to
think it out. "I believe they are the cause of the phantom,
though I don't know that it's a man dressed in a sheet."

"Why isn't it?" demanded Mr. Jenks.

"Because it was too tall for a man, unless he's a giant."

"He may have been on stilts," suggested Mr. Parker.

"No man on stilts could walk along that way," declared Tom,
confidently. "He glided along too easily. I am inclined to think
it may be some sort of a light."

"A light?" queried Mr. Damon.

"Yes, the diamond makers may be hidden in some small cave near
here, and they may have some sort of a magic lantern or a similar
arrangement, for throwing a shadow picture. They could arrange it
to move as they liked, and could cause it to disappear at will.
That, I think, is the ghost we have just seen."

"But the diamond makers have only been in this mountain
recently," objected Mr. Jenks, "and the phantom was here before
them. In fact, that was what gave the place its name."

"That may be," admitted the lad. "There are many places that
have the name of being haunted, but no one ever sees the ghost.
It is always some one else, who has heard of some one who has
seen it. That may have been the case here. I grant that this
place may have been called 'Phantom Mountain' for a number of
years, due to the superstitious tales of miners. The diamond
makers came along, found the conditions just right for their
work, and adopted the ghost, so to speak. As there wasn't any
real spirit they made one, and they use it to scare people away.
I think that's what we've just seen, though I may be wrong in my
theory as to what the phantom is."

"Well, it's gone now, at any rate," said Mr. Jenks, "and I
think we'd better get back inside the tent. It's cold out here."

"Aren't some of us going to stand guard?" demanded Mr. Damon.

"What for?" asked Mr. Jenks.

"Why--er--bless my key-ring! Suppose that ghost takes a notion
to come down here, and use his gun, as he did on the miners?"

"I don't believe that will happen," remarked Tom. "The diamond
makers, if the white thing had anything to do with them, have
given us a warning, and I think they'll at least wait until
morning to see how we heed it."

"We aren't going to heed it!" burst out Mr. Jenks. "I'm going
to go right ahead and find that cave where they make diamonds!"

"And we're with you!" exclaimed Tom. "We'll have a good fire
going the rest of the night, and that may keep intruders away. In
the morning we'll begin our search, and we'll go up the trail
where we saw the white figure."

A big pile of wood had been collected for the fire, and Tom now
piled some logs and branches on the blaze. It would last for some
time now, and the adventurers, still talking of the "ghost" went
back into the tent. It was over an hour before they all got to
sleep again, and Mr. Jenks and Mr. Damon took turns in getting up
once or twice during the remainder of the night to replenish the
fire.

Morning dawned without anything further having occurred to
disturb them, and, after a hearty breakfast, to which Tom added
some fish he caught in a nearby mountain stream, they set off up
the trail on Phantom Mountain.

They had left their tent standing, as they proposed making that
spot their headquarters until they located the cave they were
seeking. What their course would be after that would depend on
the circumstances.

If they had expected to have an easy task locating the cavern
in which Mr. Jenks had seen diamonds made, the adventurers were
disappointed. All that day they tramped up and down the mountain,
looking for some secret entrance, but none was disclosed. The
higher they went up the great peak, the fainter became the trail,
until, at length it vanished completely.

But this was not to be wondered at, since it was on solid rock,
in which no footsteps would leave an impression.

"They never brought you up here in a wagon, Mr. Jenks," decided
Tom, when he saw how steep the place was.

"I'm inclined to think so myself," admitted the diamond man.
"They must have reached the cave from some other way. As a matter
of fact, I walked some distance after getting out of the vehicle,
before we got to the cavern. But, even at that, I don't believe
we came this way."

"Yet the phantom was here," persisted Tom, "and I'm convinced
that the cave is in this neighborhood. It's up to us to find it!"

But they searched the remainder of that day in vain, and as
night was coming on, they made their way back to the camp. As
Tom, who was in the lead, approached the tent, he saw something
black fastened to the entrance.

"Hello!" he cried. "Some one's been here. That wasn't on the
tent when he left this morning."

"What is it?" asked Mr. Damon.

"A black piece of paper, written on with white ink," replied
the lad. He was reading it, and, as he perused it a look of
surprise came over his face.

"Listen to this!" called Tom. "It's evidently from the diamond
makers."

Holding up the black paper, on which the white writing stood
out in bold relief Tom read aloud:

"Be warned in time! Go back before it is too late! You are near
to death! Go back!"

"Bless my shoelaces!" cried Mr. Damon. "This is getting
serious."

CHAPTER XV--THE LANDSLIDE

Gathered about the young inventor, the three men looked at the
warning. The writing was poor, and it was evident that an attempt
had been made to disguise it. But there was no misspelling of
words, and there were no rudely drawn daggers, or bloody hands or
anything of that sort. In fact, it was a very business-like sort
of warning.

"Rather odd," commented Mr. Jenks. "Black paper and white ink."

"White ink is easy enough to make," stated Mr. Parker. "I fancy
they wanted it as conspicuous as possible."

"Yes," agreed Tom, "and this warning, together with the antics
of the thing in white last night, shows that they are aware of
our presence here, and perhaps know who we are. We will have to
be on our guard."

"Do you think that fellow Munson, whom we left in the forest,
could have gotten here and warned them?" asked Mr. Damon.

"It's possible," admitted Tom, "but now let's see if the person
who pinned this warning on our tent took any of our things."

A hasty examination, however, showed that nothing had been
disturbed, and Tom and Mr. Damon were soon getting supper ready,
everyone talking, during the progress of the meal, about the
events of the day, and the rather weird culmination of it.

"Well, we haven't had a great deal of success--so far,"
admitted Tom, as they sat about the fire, in the fast gathering
dusk. "I think, perhaps, we'd better try on the other side of the
mountain to-morrow. We've explored this side pretty thoroughly."

"Good idea," commented Mr. Jenks. "We'll do it, and move our
camp. I only hope those fellows don't find our airship and
destroy it. We'll have a hard time getting back to civilization
again, if we have to walk all the way."

This contingency caused Tom some uneasiness. He did not like to
think that the unscrupulous men might damage the Red Cloud, that
had been built only after hard labor. But he knew he could
accomplish nothing by worrying, and he tried to dismiss the
matter from his mind.

They rather expected to see the thing in white again that
night, but it did not appear, and morning came without anything
having disturbed their heavy sleep, for they were tired from the
day's tramp.

It took them the greater part of the day to make a circuit of
the base of Phantom Mountain in order to get to a place where a
sort of trail led upward.

"It's too late to do anything to-night," decided Tom, as they
set up the tent. "We'll rest, and start the first thing in the
morning."

"And the ghost isn't likely to find us here," added Mr. Damon.
"Where are you going, Mr. Parker?" he asked, as he saw the
scientist tramping a little way up the side of the mountain.

"I am going to make some observations," was the answer, and no
one paid any more attention to him for some time. Supper was
nearly ready when Mr. Parker returned. His face wore a rather
serious air, and Mr. Damon, noting it, asked laughingly:

"Well, did you discover any volcanoes, that may erupt during
the night, and scare us to death?"

"No," replied Mr. Parker, calmly, "but there is every
indication that we will soon have a terrific electrical storm.
From a high peak I caught a glimpse of one working this way
across the mountains."

"Then we'd better fasten the tent well down," called Tom. "We
don't want it to blow away."

"There will not be much danger from wind," was Mr. Parker's
opinion.

"From what then?" asked Mr. Jenks.

"From the discharges of lightning among these mountain peaks,
which contain so much iron ore. We will be in grave danger."

The fact that the scientist had not always made correct
predictions was not now considered by his hearers, and Tom and
the two men gazed at Mr. Parker in some alarm.

"Is there anything we can do to avoid it?" asked Mr. Jenks.

"The only thing to do would be to leave the mountain," was the
answer, "and, as the iron ore extends for miles, we can not get
out of the danger zone before the storm will reach us. It will be
here in less than half an hour."

"Then we'd better have supper," remarked Tom, practically, "and
get ready for it. Perhaps it may not be as bad as Mr. Parker
fears."

"It will be bad enough," declared the gloomy scientist, and he
seemed to find pleasure in his announcement.

The meal was soon over, and Tom busied himself in looking to
the guy ropes of the tent, for he feared lest there might be wind
with the storm. That it was coming was evident, for now low
mutterings of thunder could be heard off toward the west.

Black clouds rapidly obscured the heavens, and the sound of
thunder increased. Fitful flashes of lightning could be seen
forking across the sky in jagged chains of purple light.

"It's going to be a heavy storm," Tom admitted to himself. "I
hope lightning doesn't strike around here."

The storm came on rapidly, but there was a curious quietness in
the air that was more alarming than if a wind had blown. The
campfire burned steadily, and there was a certain oppressiveness
in the atmosphere.

It was now quite dark, save when the fitful lightning flashes
came, and they illuminated the scene brilliantly for a few
seconds. Then, by contrast, it was blacker than ever.

Suddenly, as Tom was gazing up toward the peak of Phantom
Mountain, he saw something that caused him to cry out in alarm.
He pointed upward, and whispered hoarsely:

"The ghost again! There's our friend in white!"

The others looked, and saw the same weird figure that had
menaced them when they were encamped on the other side of the
peak.

"They must have followed us," said Mr. Jenks, in a low voice.

Slowly the figure advanced, It waved the long white arms, as if
in warning. At times it would be only dimly visible in the
blackness, then, suddenly it would stand out in bold relief as a
great flash of fire split the clouds.

The thunder, meanwhile, had been growing louder and sharper,
indicating the nearer approach of the storm. Each lightning flash
was followed in a second or two, by a terrific clap. Still there
was no wind nor rain, and the campfire burned steadily.

All at once there was a crash as if the very mountain had split
asunder, and the adventurers saw a great ball of purple-bluish
fire shoot down, as if from some cloud, and strike against the
side of the crag, not a hundred feet from where stood the ghostly
figure in white.

"That was a bad one," cried Mr. Damon, shouting so as to be
heard above the echoes of the thunderclap.

Almost as he spoke there came another explosion, even louder
than the one preceding. A great ball of fire, pear shaped, leaped
for the same spot in the mountain.

"There's a mass of iron ore there!" yelled Mr. Parker. "The
lightning is attracted to it!"

His voice was swallowed up in the terrific crash that followed,
and, as there came another flash of the celestial fire, the
figure in white could be seen hurrying back up the mountain
trail. Evidently the electrical storm, with lightning bolts
discharging so close, was too much for the "ghost."

In another instant it looked as if the whole place about where
the diamond seekers stood, was a mass of fire. Great forked
tongues of lightning leaped from the clouds, and seemed to lick
the ground. There was a rattle and bang of thunder, like the
firing of a battery of guns. Tom and the others felt themselves
tingling all over, as if they had hold of an electrical battery,
and there was a strong smell of sulphur in the air.

"We are in the midst of the storm!" cried Mr. Parker. "We are
standing on a mass of iron ore! Any minute may be our last!"

But fate had not intended the adventurers for death by
lightning. Almost as suddenly as it had begun, the discharge of
the tongues of fire ceased in the immediate vicinity of our
friends. They stood still--awed--not knowing what to do.

Then, once more, came a terrific clap! A great mass of fire,
like some red-hot ingot from a foundry, was hurled through the
air, straight at the face of the mountain, and at the spot where
the figure in white had stood but a few minutes before.

Instantly the earth trembled, as it had at Earthquake Island,
but it was not the same. It was over in a few seconds. Then, as
the diamond seekers looked, they saw in the glare of a score of
lightning flashes that followed the one great clap, the whole
side of the mountain slip away, and go crashing into the valley
below.

"A landslide!" cried Mr. Parker. "That is the landslide which I
predicted! The lightning bolt has split Phantom Mountain!"

CHAPTER XVI--THE VAST CAVERN

For a time the roiling, slipping, sliding and tumbling of the
mass of earth and stones, down the side of the mountain,
effectually drowned all other sounds. Even the thunder was
stilled, and though Tom and his companions called to one another
in terror, their voices could not rise above that terrific
tumult.

Finally, when they found that the direction of the slide was
away from their tent, and that they were not likely to be
engulfed, they grew more calm.

Gradually the noise subsided. The great boulders had rolled to
the bottom of the valley, and now only a mass of earth and stones
was sliding down. Even this stopped in about five minutes, and,
as though satisfied with what it had done, the electrical storm
passed. Not a drop of rain had fallen.

"Bless my shirt studs!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, who was the first
to speak after the din had quieted. "Bless my soul! But that was
awful!"

"It was just what I expected," said Mr. Parker, calmly. "I
knew, from my observations, that we were in a region where
landslides and terrific electrical storms may be expected at any
time. I fully looked for this."

"Well," remarked Mr. Jenks, rather sarcastically, "I hope it
came up to your expectations, Mr. Parker."

"Oh, fully," was the answer, "though I wish it could have
happened in daylight, so that I could better have observed
certain phenomena regarding the landslide. They are very
interesting."

"At a distance," admitted Tom, with a laugh of relief. "Well,
I'm glad it's over, though we'll have to wait until morning to
see what damage has been done. Lucky we weren't struck by
lightning. I never saw such bolts!"

"Me, either!" declared Mr. Damon. "This mountain seems to
attract them."

"It is like a magnet," said Mr. Parker. "I think I shall be
able to make some fine observations here."

"If we live through it," murmured Mr. Jenks.

They watched the play of lightning about a distant bank of
clouds, but the storm was now far away, only a faint rumbling of
thunder being heard.

"I'm wondering what happened to the phantom," said Tom, after a
pause. "Seems to me he was right in that track of the storm."

"Do you think it was a 'he'?" asked Mr. Jenks.

"I think we'll find that it's some sort of a man," answered the
young inventor. "We may find out very soon, now. I've changed my
theory about the ghost being reflections of light."

"How's that?" Mr. Damon wanted to know.

"Well, I think we are on the side of Phantom Mountain where the
diamond cave is," went on the lad. "The fact that the phantom
appeared here, soon after we arrived, shows that the men kept
close track of our movements. It also shows, I think, that the
phantom did not have to travel far to be on the spot, whereas we
had to make quite a trip to get around the base of the mountain.
I think the cave is up there," and Tom pointed toward the spot
where the weird figure had been last seen, before the storm drove
it back.

"There may be two phantoms," suggested Mr. Jenks. "They may
keep one on this side of the mountain, and one on the other, to
warn intruders away.

"It's possible," admitted Tom. "Well, we'll see how things look
in the morning, when we'll take up our march again, and go up the
mountain. We'll reach the top, if possible, which we couldn't do
from the other side, as it was too steep."

"I hope we shall be able to go forward in the morning," came
from Mr. Jenks.

"What do you mean?" asked the lad, struck by a peculiar
significance in the diamond man's tones.

"Why, that landslide may have opened a great gully in the side
of Phantom Mountain, which will prevent us from passing. It was a
terrific lot of earth and stones that slid away," answered Mr.
Jenks.

"It certainly was," agreed Mr. Parker. "I would not be
surprised if the mountain was half destroyed, and it may be that
the diamond cave no longer exists."

"Not very cheerful, to say the least," murmured Mr. Jenks to
Tom, and, as it was getting quite chilly, following the storm,
they went inside the tent.

Tom could hardly wait for daylight, to get up and see what
havoc the landslide had wrought. As soon as the first faint flush
of dawn showed over the eastern peaks, he hurried from the tent.
Mr. Damon heard him arise, and followed.

A curious scene met their eyes. All about were great rocks rent
and torn by the awful power of the lightning. The fronts of the
stone cliffs were scarred and burned by the electrical fire, and
fantastic markings, grotesque faces, and leering animals seemed
to have been drawn by some gigantic artist who used a bolt from
heaven for his brush.

But the eyes of Tom and Mr. Damon took all this in at a glance,
and then their gaze went forward to where the avalanche had torn
away a great part of the mountain.

"Whew! I should say it was a landslide!" cried Tom.

"Bless my wishbone, yes!" agreed Mr. Damon.

Below them, in the valley, lay piled immense masses of earth
and stones. Boulders were heaped up on boulders, and rocks upon
rocks, being tossed about in heaps, strung about in long ridges,
and swirled about in curves, as though some cyclone had toyed
with them after the lightning flash had tossed them there.

"But the mountain isn't half gone," said Tom, as his eyes took
in what was left of the phantom berg. "I guess it will take a few
more bolts like that one, to put this hill out of business."

Though the landslide had been a great one, the larger part of
the mountain still stood. An immense slice had been taken from
one side, but the summit was untouched.

"And there's where the diamond cave is!" cried Tom, pointing to
it.

"I think so myself," agreed Mr. Jenks, who came from the tent
at that moment, and joined the lad and Mr. Damon. "I think we
shall find the cave somewhere up there. We must start for it, as
soon as we have eaten, and we may reach it by night."

The three stood gazing up toward the summit of the great
mountain. Suddenly, as the sun rose higher in the heavens, it
sent a shaft of rosy light on the face of the berg that had been
scarred by the landslide. Tom Swift uttered an exclamation, and
pointed at something.

"See!" he cried. "Look where the trail is--the trail down which
the phantom must have come. It is on the edge of a cliff now!"

They looked, and saw that this was so. The increasing light had
just revealed it to them. When the lightning bolt had torn away a
great portion of the mountain it had cut sheer down for a great
depth and when the earth and stones fell away they left a narrow
pathway, winding around the mountain, but so near the edge of a
great chasm, that there was room but for one person at a time to
walk on that footway. The uncertain trail up Phantom Mountain had
all but been destroyed.

"The way up to the peak is by that path, now," spoke Tom, in a
low voice.

"Bless my soul!" cried Mr. Damon. "It's as much as a man's life
is worth to attempt it. If he got dizzy, he'd topple over, and
fall a thousand feet. Dare we risk it?"

"It's the only way to get up," went on Tom. "It's either that
way, or not at all. We've tried the other side without success.
We must go up this way--or turn back."

"Then we'll go up!" cried Mr. Jenks. "It may not be as
dangerous as it looks from here."

But it was even more dangerous than it appeared, when they went
part way up it after a hasty breakfast. The trail was a mere
ledge of rock now, and in some places, to get around a projecting
edge of the mountain, they had to stand with their backs to the
dizzy depths at their feet, and with both arms outstretched work
their way around to where the trail was wider.

"Shall we risk it?" asked Tom, when they had tried the way, and
found it so dangerous. "We can't take anything with us--even our
guns, for we couldn't carry them, and if we reach the month of
the cave, and find those men there--"

He paused significantly. The adventurers looked at one another.
The search for the diamond makers was becoming more and more
dangerous.

"I say let's go on!" decided Mr. Damon, suddenly. "We want to
locate that cave, first of all. Perhaps, when we do find it, we
may see some easier way of getting to it than this. And if those
diamond makers do attack us--well, I don't believe they'll shoot
defenseless men, and they may listen to reason, and give Mr.
Jenks his rights--tell him how to make diamonds in return for the
money he gave them."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10