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Updated: May 4, 2025
"I see Tolpec!" and he pointed to the native who had deserted from Jacinto's force to help them. "How did they get here?" asked Professor Bumper. This was quickly told. In their camp, where, under the leadership of Tolpec they had been left to do the excavating, the natives had heard, seen and felt the effects of the storm and the earthquake, though it did little damage in their vicinity.
"Why not?" asked Tom. "Well, maybe he only wanted to get us back here, and then he'll desert, too. Maybe that's what he's done now, making us lose two or three days by inducing us to return, waiting for what will never happen his return with other natives." A silence followed Ned's intimation. "Ned, do you really think Tolpec is going to desert us?" asked Tom.
"I'm glad of that for all our sakes. But what does he say about Jacinto?" The professor asked some more questions, receiving answers, and then translated them. "This Indian, whose name is Tolpec, says Jacinto is a fraud," exclaimed Professor Bumper. "He made all the Indians leave us in the night, though many of them were willing to stay and fill the contract they had made.
As they ate Tolpec explained to Professor Bumper, who repeated it to the youths and Mr. Damon, that it had been necessary to go farther than he had intended to get the porters and mules. But the Indians were a friendly tribe, of which he was a member, and could be depended on. There was a feast and a sort of celebration in camp that night.
The night passed without incident, and then, telling his new friends that he would return as soon as possible with help, Tolpec, taking a small supply of food with him, set out through the jungle again. As the green vines and creepers closed after him, and the explorers were left alone with their possessions piled around them, Ned remarked: "After all, I wonder if it was wise to let him go?"
Damon, the morning of the eighth day after their desertion by the faithless Jacinto. "What do you say, Professor Bumper; ought we not to start off on our own account?" "We had better if Tolpec does not return today," was the answer.
Tal had not sufficiently recovered from the jaguar wounds to go with the party, but the old man, in spite of his years, was hale and hearty and capable of withstanding hardships. One of the most intelligent of the Indians was put in charge of the digging gangs as foreman, and told to keep them at work, and not to let them stray. Tolpec, whose brother Tom had tried to save, proved a treasure.
He may have trouble in that, especially if it is known that he has left Jacinto, who, I imagine, is a power among the tribes here." But there were only two things left to do wait and hope. The travelers did both. Four days passed and there was no sign of Tolpec. Eagerly, and not a little anxiously, they watched the jungle path along which he had disappeared.
"We'll start in the morning!" exclaimed the savant his own cheerful self again, now that there was a prospect of going further into the interior. "Tell the men to get something to eat, Tolpec. There is plenty for all." "Good!" grunted the new guide and soon the hungry Indians, who had come far, were satisfying their hunger.
Such packages of goods and supplies as could not well be carried by the Indians in their head straps, were loaded on the backs of the pack-mules. Tolpec explained that on reaching the Indian village, where he had secured the porters, they could get some ox-carts which would be a convenience in traveling into the interior toward the Copan valley.
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