The Moving Picture Boys at Panama Part 31

Alcando was picked for the work. He did not want to undertake it, but he was promised a large sum, and threats were made against him, for the originator of the plot had a certain hold over him.

"But I was to throw the blame on innocent parties if I could," the Spaniard went on, in his confession. "Also I was to select a means of causing the explosion that would not easily be detected. I selected moving pictures as the simplest means. I knew that some were to be made of the Ca.n.a.l for Government use, and I thought if I got in with the moving picture operators I would have a good chance, and good excuse, for approaching the dam without being suspected. After I had accomplished what I set out to do I could, I thought, let suspicion rest on the camera men.

"So I laid my plans. I learned that Mr. Hadley's firm had received the contract to make the views, and, by inquiries, through spies, I learned who their princ.i.p.al operators were. It was then I came to you boys," he said. "Ashamed as I am to confess it, it was my plan to have the blame fall on you."

Blake and Joe gasped.

"But when you saved my life at the broken bridge that time, of course I would not dream of such a dastardly trick," the Spaniard resumed. "I had to make other plans. I tried to get out of it altogether, but that man would not let me. So I decided to sacrifice myself. I would myself blow up the dam, or, rather, make a little explosion that would scare prospective s.h.i.+ppers. I did not care what became of me as long as I did not implicate you. I could not do that.

"So I changed my plans. Confederates supplied the dynamite, and I got this clock-work, in the bra.s.s-bound box, to set it off by means of electrical wires. I planned to be far away when it happened, but I would have left a written confession that would have put the blame where it belonged.

"I kept the battery box connections and clockwork inside the small camera I carried. Tonight all was in readiness. The dynamite was planted, and I set the mechanism. But something went wrong with it. There was too much of a delay. I came back to change the timer. I broke the string connections you made, and--I was caught by the camera. The news had, somehow, leaked out, and I was caught. Well, perhaps it is better so," and he shrugged his shoulders with seeming indifference.

"But please believe me when I say that no harm would have come to you boys," he went on earnestly, "nor would the dam have been greatly damaged.

"It was all a terrible plot in which I became involved, not all through my own fault," went on the Spaniard, dramatically. "As soon as I met you boys, after you had saved my life, I repented of my part, but I could not withdraw. The plans of this scoundrel --yes, I must call him so, though perhaps I am as great--his plans called for finding out something about the big guns that protect the Ca.n.a.l. Only I was not able to do that, though he ordered me to in a letter I think you saw."

Blake nodded. He and Joe were beginning to understand many strange things.

"One of the secret agents brought me the box containing the mechanism that was to set off the dynamite," the Spaniard resumed.

"You nearly caught him," he added, and Blake recalled the episode of the cigar smoke. "I had secret conferences with the men engaged with me in the plot," the conspirator confessed. "At times I talked freely about dynamiting the dam, in order to throw off the suspicions I saw you entertained regarding me. But I must explain one thing. The collision, in which the tug was sunk, had nothing to do with the plot. That was a simple accident, though I did know the captain of that unlucky steamer.

"Finally, after I had absented myself from here several times, to see that all the details of the plot were arranged, I received a letter telling me the dynamite had been placed, and that, after I had set it off, I had better flee to Europe."

Blake had accidentally seen that letter.

"I received instructions, the time we were starting off on the tug," went on Alcando, "that the original plot was to be changed, and that a big charge of dynamite was to be used instead of a small one.

"But I refused to agree to it," he declared. "I felt that, in spite of what I might do to implicate myself, you boys would be blamed, and I could not have that if the Ca.n.a.l were to suffer great damage. I would have done anything to protect you, after what you did in saving my worthless life," he said bitterly. "So I would not agree to all the plans of that scoundrel, though he urged me most hotly.

"But it is all over, now!" he exclaimed with a tragic gesture. "I am caught, and it serves me right. Only I can be blamed. My good friends, you will not be," and he smiled at Blake and Joe. "I am glad all the suspense is at an end. I deserve my punishment. I did not know the plot had been discovered, and that the stage was set to make so brilliant a capture of me. But I am glad you boys had the honor.

"But please believe me in one thing. I really did want to learn how to take moving pictures, though it was to be a blind as to my real purpose. And, as I say, the railroad company did not want to really destroy the dam. After we had put the Ca.n.a.l out of business long enough for us to have ama.s.sed a fortune we would have been content to see it operated. We simply wanted to destroy public confidence in it for a time."

"The worst kind of destruction," murmured Captain Wiltsey. "Take him away, and guard him well," he ordered the soldiers. "We will look further into this plot to-morrow."

But when to-morrow came there was no Mr. Alcando. He had managed to escape in the night from his frail prison, and whither he had gone no one knew.

But that he had spoken the truth was evident. A further investigation showed that it would have been impossible to have seriously damaged the dam by the amount of dynamite hidden. But, as Captain Wiltsey said, the destruction of public confidence would have been a serious matter.

"And so it was Alcando, all along," observed Blake, a few days later, following an unsuccessful search for the Spaniard.

"Yes, our suspicions of him were justified," remarked Blake. "It's a lucky thing for us that we did save his life, mean as he was. It wouldn't have been any joke to be suspected of trying to blow up the dam."

"No, indeed," agreed Blake. "And suspicion might easily have fallen on us. It was a clever trick. Once we had the Government permission to go all over with our cameras, and Alcando, as a pupil, could go with us, he could have done almost anything he wanted. But the plot failed."

"Lucky it did," remarked Joe. "I guess they'll get after that railroad man next."

But the stockholder who was instrumental in forming the plot, like Alcando, disappeared. That they did not suffer for their parts in the affair, as they should have, was rumored later, when both of them were seen in a European capital, well supplied with money.

How they got it no one knew.

The Brazilian Railroad, however, repudiated the attempt to damage the Ca.n.a.l, even apparently, laying all the blame on the two men who had disappeared. But from then on more stringent regulations were adopted about admitting strangers to vital parts of the Ca.n.a.l.

"But we're through," commented Blake one day, when he and Joe had filmed the last views of the big waterway. "That Alcando was a 'slick' one, though."

"Indeed he was," agreed Joe. "The idea of calling that a new alarm clock!" and he looked at the bra.s.s-bound box. Inside was a most complicated electrical timing apparatus, for setting off charges of explosive. It could be adjusted to cause the detonation at any set minute, giving the plotter time to be a long way from the scene.

And, only because of a slight defect, Alcando would have been far from the scene when the little explosion occurred at Gatun Dam.

Once more the great Ca.n.a.l was open to traffic. The last of the slide in Culebra Cut had been taken out, and boats could pa.s.s freely.

"Let's make a trip through now, just for fun," suggested Blake to Joe one day, when they had packed up their cameras.

Permission was readily granted them to make a pleasure trip through to Panama, and it was greatly enjoyed by both of them.

"Just think!" exclaimed Blake, as they sat under an awning on the deck of their boat, and looked at the blue water, "not a thing to do."

"Until the next time," suggested Joe.

"That's right--we never do seem to be idle long," agreed Blake. "I wonder what the 'next time' will be?"

And what it was, and what adventures followed you may learn by reading the next volume of this series, to be called "The Moving Picture Boys Under the Sea; Or, The Treasure on the Lost s.h.i.+p."

"Here you go, Blake!" cried Joe, a few days later. "Letter for you!"

"Thanks. Get any yourself?"

"Yes, one."

"Huh! How many do you want?" asked Blake, as he began reading his epistle. "Well, I'll soon be back," he added in a low voice, as he finished.

"Back where?" asked Joe.

"To New York."

And so, with these pleasant thoughts, we will take leave of the moving picture boys.

THE END