of the pieces of ordnance for the defense of the Panama
Canal, is it not?" he asked Tom.

The young inventor nodded in assent.

"Having heard of you, and the wonderful explosive used in
your big cannon," the contractor went on, "I wrote to my
brother that I would try and get some for him.

"You see," he resumed, "this is the situation. Back in the
Andes Mountains, a couple of hundred miles east of Lima, the
government is building a short railroad line to connect two
others. If this is done it will mean that the products of
Peru--quinine bark, coffee, cocoa, sugar, rubber, incense
and gold can more easily be transported. But to connect the
two railroad lines a big tunnel must be constructed.

"My brother and I make a specialty of such work, and when
we saw bids advertised for, our firm put in an estimate.
There was some trouble with a rival firm, which also bid,
but we secured the contract, and bound ourselves to have the
tunnel finished within a certain time, or forfeit a large
sum.

"That was over a year ago. Since then our men, aided by
the native Indians of Peru, have been tunneling the
mountain, until, about a month back, we struck a snag."

"What sort of snag?" Tom asked.