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Updated: June 20, 2025
Already the time limit was getting perilously close, and the contractors did not doubt that their rivals were only waiting for a chance to step in and take their places. Nothing more had been seen or heard of the bearded man, Waddington, or Blakeson & Grinder.
"It is best to be on the safe side. The face I saw, I'm sure, was that of Waddington, who is a tool of Blakeson & Grinder, rival tunnel contractors. They put in a bid on this Andes tunnel, but we were lower in our figures by several thousand dollars, and the contract was awarded to us. "Blakeson & Grinder tried, by every means in their power, to get the job away from us.
For shortly afterward government secret service agents rounded up the chief members of the gang, including Simpson and Blakeson. They, with Schwen, were sent to an internment camp for the period of the war, and enough information was obtained from them to disclose all the workings of the plot.
Tom's first blast was very successful, and enough rock was loosed to keep the laborers busy for a week. The contractors were more than satisfied. "At this rate we'll finish ahead of time, and earn a premium," said Job to his brother. "That's right. You didn't make any mistake in appealing to Tom Swift. But I wonder if Blakeson & Grinder have given up trying to get the job away from us?"
"Well, I can't tell you exactly," went an the tunnel contractor. "Those rivals of ours, Blakeson & Grinder, are unscrupulous fellows. They feel very bitter about not getting the contract, I hear. And they would be only too glad to have us fail in the work. That would mean that they, as the next lowest bidders, would be given the job.
Some one must have dropped a match in the straw of the pig-pen to start the blaze, it was said. "Well, we'll nail a few boards back on the pen, and it will do to keep the pigs in until morning," said Mr. Blakeson, the farmer. "That is if we can get 'em collected again." "My dogs will help," said Mr. Brown. "Here, Dix! Splash!" he called. "Drive the pigs up here!"
This last he announced with more conviction after he had had a talk with one of the men in the automobile. And it was this consultation that confirmed Tom and Ned in their belief that the whole thing was a plot, growing out of Tom's rather reckless destruction of the barn; a plot on the part of Blakeson and his gang.
"And are your rivals, Blakeson & Grinder, making any trouble?" "Not that I've heard of. Though just what the situation may be down in Peru I don't know. I fancy everything isn't going just right or my brother would not be so anxious for me to come on in such a hurry." "Do you anticipate any real trouble?" Mr. Titus paused a moment before answering. "Well, yes," he said, finally, "I do!"
The German plotters, I'm going to call them, for I believe that Blakeson and his gang though I didn't see him are really working in the interests of Germany to get the secret of my tank." "Well, they haven't got her yet," said Ned, "and they're not likely to now. Go on, Tom, if you feel able tell us in a few words what happened. We've been trying to think, but can't."
Weren't you induced by a man named Simpson, or one named Blakeson, to make the demand of three thousand dollars' damage for your barn?" "No, it wasn't anybody of either of those names," admitted Mr. Kanker, evidently a bit put out by the question. "It was some one, though, wasn't it?" insisted Ned.
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