"But he will be a
cripple for life. Not only would he have wrecked the tunnel,
but he would have killed many of our men had he set off that
blast. Koku saved them, though it seems too bad he had to
fight to do it."
An investigation showed that Koku spoke truly. The charge,
all ready to set off, was found where he had knocked it from
the hand of Lamos. And so Tom's giant saved the day. Lamos
was sent back to his own village, a broken and humbled
giant. And to this day, in that part of Peru, the great
struggle between Koku and Lamos is spoken of with awe where
Indians gather about their council fires, and they tell
their children of the Titanic fight.
"It was part of the plot," said Job Titus when the usual
blast had been set off that day, with not very good results.
"This giant was sent to us by our rivals. They wanted him to
hamper our work, for they see we have a chance to finish on
time. I think that foreman, Serato, is in the plot. He
brought Lamos here. We'll fire him!"
This was done, though the Indian protested his innocence.
But he could not be trusted.
"We can't take any chances," said Job Titus. "Our time is
too nearly up. In fact I'm afraid we won't finish on time as
it is. There is too much of that hard rock to cut through."
"There's only one thing to do," said Tom, after an
investigation. "As you say, there is more of that hard rock
than we calculated on.
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