Page:Tom Swift in the City of Gold.djvu/201



" that sure is a big statue!" exclaimed Ned as he walked around it.

"An' to t'ink dat it's solid gold!" cried Eradicate his eyes big with wonder. "I suah wish I had dat all fo' mahse'f!"

"We never could carry that in the balloon," spoke Tom with a shake of his head. "I guess we'll have to leave it here. But I would like to take say the head. It would be worth a lot as a relic to some museum—worth more than the value of the gold itself. I've a notion to do it."

"How could you get the head off?" asked Mr. Damon.

"Oh, pull the statue down or overturn it, as the American patriots did to the Bowling Green, New York, lead statue of King George III during the Revolutionary days," answered Tom. "I think that's what I'll do."

"I say, look here!" called Ned, who had made a circuit of the statue. "There's some sort of an