the show. I'd like to know what's
doing. What professor are you talking of?"

"Professor Swyington Bumper."

"Swyington Bumper?" and Ned's voice showed that his memory was a bit
hazy.

"Yes. You ought to remember him. He was on the steamer when I went
down to Peru to help the Titus Brothers dig the big tunnel. That
plotter Waddington, or some of his tools, dropped a bomb where it might
have done us some injury, but Professor Bumper, who was a fellow
passenger, on his way to South America to look for the lost city of
Pelone, calmly picked up the bomb, plucked out the fuse, and saved us
from bad injuries, if not death. And he was as cool about it as an
ice-cream cone. Surely you remember!"

"Swyington Bumper! Oh, yes, now I remember him," said Ned Newton. "But
what has he got to do with a wonderful story? Has he written more
about the lost city of Pelone? If he has I don't see anything so very
wonderful in that."

"There isn't," agreed Tom. "But this isn't that," and Tom picked up
the magazine and leafed it to find the article he had been reading.

"Let's have a look at it," suggested Ned. "You act as though you might
be vitally interested in it. Maybe you're thinking of joining forces
with the professor again, as you did when you dug the big tunnel."

"Oh, no. I haven't any such idea," Tom said. "I've got enough work
laid out now to keep me in Shopton for the next year. I have no notion
of going anywhere with Professor Bumper. Yet I can't help being
impressed by this," and, having found the article in the magazine to
which he referred, he handed it to his chum.

"Why, it's by Bumper himself!" exclaimed Ned.

"Yes. Though there's nothing remarkable in that, seeing that he is
constantly contributing articles to various publications or writing
books. It's the story itself that's so wonderful. To save you the
trouble of wading through a lot of scientific detail, which I know you
don't care about, I'll tell you that the story is about a queer idol of
solid gold, weighing many pounds, and, in consequence, of great value."

"Of solid gold you say?" asked Ned eagerly.

"That's it. Got on your banking air already," Tom laughed. "To sum it
up for you--notice I use the word 'sum,' which is very appropriate for
a bank--the professor has got on the track of another lost or hidden
city. This one, the name of which doesn't appear, is in the Copan
valley of Honduras, and----"

"Copan," interrupted N