Page:Tom Swift in the City of Gold.djvu/203

Rh me, and I think if we all pull together we can do it."

Tom made a noose and skillfully threw it over the head of the statue. It settled about the neck, and then, all taking hold, and walking away a short distance, they gave a "long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether."

At first the statue would not move, but when they strained on the rope, the image suddenly tilted, and, a moment later it tumbled to the stone pavement. But the fall was not as heavy as should have resulted from a statue of solid metal. There was a tinkling sound.

"That's queer!" cried Tom. "It didn't make half the fuss I expected," and he hurried up to look at the fallen statue. "Why!" he cried in astonishment, "it's hollow—the big golden statue is hollow—it's a fake!"

And so it was. The big image was only a shell of gold.

"Not so valuable as it looked," commented Ned. "We could take that with us in the balloon, if it wasn't so big."

"Well, here goes for the head, anyhow!" exclaimed Tom, and with a few blows of his keen little axe he severed the neck. As he held it up for all to see—rather a grewsome sight it was, too, in the flickering light of the gas