“Tell us about it!” urged Tom eagerly.

But a difficulty very soon developed.  Tal’s intentions were good, but he was not equal to the task of translating.  Nor was the understanding of Tom and Ned of Spanish quite up to the mark.

“Say, this is too much for me!” exclaimed Tom.  “We are losing the most valuable part of this by not understanding what Goosal says, and what Tal translates.”

“What can we do?” asked Ned.

“Get the professor here as soon as possible.  He can manage this dialect, and he’ll get the information at first hand.  If Goosal can tell where to begin excavating for the city he ought to tell the professor, not us.”

“That’s right,” agreed Ned.  “We’ll bring the professor here as soon as we can.”

Accordingly they stopped the somewhat difficult task of listening to the translated story and told Tal, as well as they could, that they would bring the “man-with-no-hair-on-his-head” to listen to the tale.

This seemed to suit the Indians, all of whom in the small colony appeared to be very grateful to Tom and Ned for having saved the life of Tal.

“That was a good shot you made when you bowled over the jaguar,” said Ned, as the two young explorers started back to their camp.

“Better than I realized, if it leads to the discovery of Kurzon and the idol of gold,” remarked Tom.

“And to think we should come across the oiled-silk holding the poisoned arrows!” went on Ned.  “That’s the strangest part of the whole affair.  If it hadn’t been that you shot the jaguar this never would have come about.”

That Professor Bumper was astonished, and Mr. Damon likewise, when they heard the story of Tom and Ned, is stating it mildly.

“Come on!” exclaimed the scientist, as Tom finished, “we must see this Goosal at once.  If my map is destroyed, and it seems to be, this old Indian may be our only hope.  Where did he say the buried city was, Tom?”

“Oh, somewhere in this vicinity, as nearly as I could make out.  But you’d better talk with him yourself.  We didn’t say anything about the idol of gold.”

“That’s right.  It’s just as well to let the natives think we are only after ordinary relics.”

“Bless my insurance policy!” gasped Mr. Damon.  “It does not seem possible that we are on the right track.”

“Well, I think we are, from what little information Goosal gave us,” remarked Tom.  “This buried city of his must be a wonderful place.”

“It is, if it is what I take it to be,” agreed the professor.  “I told you I would bring you to a land of wonders, Tom Swift, and they have hardly begun yet.  Come, I am anxious to talk to Goosal.”

In order that the Indians in the Bumper camp might not hear rumors of the new plan to locate the hidden city, and, at the same time, to keep rumors from spreading to the camp of the rivals, the scientist and his friends started a new shaft, and put a shift of men at work on it.