"
"Please don't tempt me," Tom said with a
laugh. "I'm only too anxious to go, and if it
wasn't for the stabilizer I'd be with you in a
minute. But---- Well, you'll have to get along
without me. Maybe I can join you later."
"What's this about the idol keeping guard
over the ancient city?" asked Ned, for he was
interested in strange stories.
"It seems," explained the professor, "that in
the early days there was a strange race of people,
inhabiting Central America, with a somewhat
high civilization, only traces of which remained
when the Spaniards came.
"But these traces, and such hieroglyphics, or,
to be more exact pictographs, as I have been able
to decipher from the old documents, tell of one
country, or perhaps it was only a city, over which
this great golden idol of Quitzel presided.
"There is in some of these papers a description
of the idol, which is not exactly a beauty,
judged from modern standards. But the main
fact is that it is made of solid gold, and may
weigh anywhere from one to two tons."
"Two tons of gold!" cried New Newton. "Why,
if that's the case it would be worth----" and
he fell to doing a sum in mental arithmetic.
"I am not so concerned about the monetary
value of the statue as I am about its antiquity,"
went on Professor Bumper. "There are other
statues in this buried city of Kurzon, and though
they may not be so valuable they will give me
a wealth of material for my research work."
"How do you know there are other statues?"
asked Mr.
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