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Then, seeing that the work of remedying the accident was under way, almost as soon as the accident had occurred, Blake and Joe, followed by Mr. Alcando, hurried on through the rain, up to their ankles in red mud, for the rain was heavy. It was this same rain that had so loosened the earth that the slide was caused.
Well, if he does they may send for Joe and me, and that will be so much more business for us, though I'm sorry to see him make a fizzle of it." But Mr. Alcando appeared to have no fears on his own account. He was cheerfully optimistic. "I shall want several cameras, of different kinds," he said to the boys. "Perhaps you can recommend to me where to get some." "Yes," spoke Joe.
Alcando was of a sunny and happy disposition, and not nearly as quick tempered as persons of his nationality are supposed to be. "I suppose it does look; as though we were rummaging in your things," said Blake, deciding instantly that it was best to be frank. "But we heard a curious ticking noise when we came down here, and we traced it to your bunk.
"That Alcando was a 'slick' one, though." "Indeed he was," agreed Joe. "The idea of calling that a new alarm clock!" and he looked at the brass-bound box. Inside was a most complicated electrical timing apparatus, for setting off charges of explosive. It could be adjusted to cause the detonation at any set minute, giving the plotter time to be a long way from the scene.
"Well, I er, I ," stammered Blake. Somewhat to his own surprise he did find himself harboring new suspicions against Mr. Alcando, but they had never before taken this form. As for Joe, he blushed to recall that he had, in the past, also been somewhat suspicious of the Spaniard. But now the man's frank manner of speaking had disarmed all that. "Dynamite, eh!" exclaimed the captain.
But there was some complication and his papers had not yet been granted. He was in fear lest someone would be granted a similar patent before he received his. "Oh, I don't know as I'm afraid of that," Joe answered slowly. "Well, it must be that or something," insisted Blake. "You hear Alcando and someone else talking about a machine, and you at once jump to the conclusion that it's a camera."
The whole scene was brilliantly lighted, and remained so for many seconds. And in the glare of the magnesium powder the moving picture boys saw a curious sight. Advancing toward the dam was a solitary figure, which had come to halt when the camera went off with the flashlight. It was the figure of a man who had evidently just arisen after a fall. "Mr. Alcando!" gasped Joe.
And, only because of a slight defect, Alcando would have been far from the scene when the little explosion occurred at Gatun Dam. Once more the great Canal was open to traffic. The last of the slide in Culebra Cut had been taken out, and boats could pass freely. "Let's make a trip through now, just for fun," suggested Blake to Joe one day, when they had packed up their cameras.
Alcando quietly. "If I'm to do this sort of work in the jungle, along our railroad, I'll need to have my nerve stiffened." "This will stiffen it all right," returned Blake, sternly, as a louder sound from without told of a larger mass of the earth sliding into the waters of the Canal, whence the drift had been excavated with so much labor.
When are you going to make the last of the spillway views?" Blake did not answer. He was listening to a curious sound. It was a ticking, like that of an alarm clock, and it came from the interior of the carrying case that held extra reels of film for the little camera Mr. Alcando had. Blake felt himself staring at the black box. "What is the matter?" asked Mr.
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