"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Sr 020 - Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

``Yes, I said I'd go if Tom Swift did.''

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``Oh, yes. You did say that. But I don't call that a condition, for of
course Tom Swift will go. Now let me tell you something more than I could
impart over the telephone.

``Soon after I called you up, Tom -- and it was quite a coincidence
that it should have been at a time when you had just finished my magazine
article. Soon after that, as I was saying, I arranged to come on to
Shopton. And now I'm glad we're all here together.

``But how comes it, Ned Newton, that you are not in the bank?''

``I've left there,'' explained Ned.

``He's now general financial man for the Swift Company,'' Tom
explained. ``My father and I found that we could not look after the
inventing and experimental end, and money matters, too, and as Ned had had
considerable experience this way we made him take over those worries,'' and
Tom laughed genially.

``No worries at all, as far as the Swift Company is concerned,''
returned Ned.

``Well, I guess you earn your salary,'' laughed Tom. ``But now,
Professor Bumper, let's hear from you. Is there anything more about this
idol of gold that you can tell us?''

``Plenty, Tom, plenty. I could talk all day, and not get to the end of
the story. But a lot

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of it would be scientific detail that might be too dry for you in spite of
this excellent lemonade,''

Between them Koku and Eradicate had managed to make a pitcher of the
beverage, though Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper, told Tom afterward that the
two had a quarrel in the kitchen as to who should squeeze the lemons, the
giant insisting that he had the better right to ``punch'' them.

``So, not to go into too many details,'' went on the professor, ``I'll
just give you a brief outline of this story of the idol of gold.

``Honduras, as you of course know, is a republic of Central America,
and it gets its name from something that happened on the fourth voyage of