THE FIGURE ON THE ROCK
Horror and surprise held the five speechless for a moment. Then, as
they heard the noise of the rushing water, and saw, by the light of
their lanterns, that it came almost to them, but suddenly turned to the
right, they came to their senses.
"Nort! Nort!" yelled Dick, his voice being flung back at him in echoes
from the rocky, vaulted roof of the tunnel.
"What in th' world happened?" asked Old Billee in trembling accents.
"Nort fell into the stream, and was carried away," answered Bud, his
voice choking.
"But why doesn't the water reach us?" asked Snake.
"That's what we'll have to find out," asserted Bud, bravely. "Come on!"
"But be careful," cautioned Billee. "Something may happen t' us, an'
then we can't help Nort! Go easy!"
He spoke only in time, for the next moment, with an exclamation of
horror, Bud and Dick, who had forged ahead, recoiled back.
"Look out!" shouted Bud, and he made such a lurch backward to recover
his balance that the lantern was flung from his hand. It dropped, as
they all could see, into the midst of black, swirling waters, white
foam-capped on top.
And it was into this stream that Nort had fallen and been carried away,
and into this stream that Bud and Dick had been nearly precipitated as
they dashed forward.
Bud's lantern was extinguished with a hiss as the waters penetrated it
and covered the wick. It sank from sight, but not before it had, in a
flash, illuminated the surface of the water.
"It's a good thing we took the right-hand side," said Billee, as he and
the others saw what it was that had caused the water to rush almost to
their feet and then branch off. "I mean it's a good thing, for it may
help us to solve the mystery. But as for poor Nort----"
He did not finish, but Dick sent up a despairing cry:
"Nort! Oh, Nort! Where are you?"
And only the vaulty echoes answered.
"What are we going to do?" asked Snake, who seemed unable to suggest
anything.
"Everybody come here with their lanterns," directed Bud. "And light
that spare one, Billee."
Thus was replaced the one he had dropped in the effort to save himself
from falling into the same torrent that had engulfed his cousin.
And in the light of the lanterns, the one Nort had carried being
forever lost, it seemed they all could see the explanation for the
apparently mysterious action of the underground stream; or, rather, it
was an explanation of part of the mystery; for this was only the
beginning.
Beyond where they stood, in the direction of Pocut River, there flowed
through the ancient channel a body of water larger than that which
usually filled the underground course. This was accounted for, likely,
by the fact that it had been stopped, or dammed, by some natural or
artificial means, and had suddenly been released. Thus the channel was
more fully filled than usual.
But, as I have said, the water came up to the point where the members
of the expedition then stood. From there it made a sudden turn to
their right, as they stood facing the river end of the tunnel. And it
was this sudden turn--this shift in the course of the underground
stream--which prevented it from engulfing our friends.
But it had engulfed Nort.
"I see what happened--or, at least, part of it," spoke Bud while the
others listened. "The waters were suddenly turned on again, or turned
themselves on, and shot this way. Nort heard them and ran down here to
jump across the stream-bed, which was then dry. But he must have
fallen over the edge of this traverse ledge, or channel, as I nearly
did, and down he went!"
They looked, and agreed that this was very likely how it had taken
place.
"But can't we save him?" pleaded Dick. "I'm a good swimmer. Let me
try to get him! Maybe he's lying down there--on the bottom!"
He made as if to take off his coat, but Old Billee grabbed him by the
arm.
"You'd only go t' your death, boy!" said the old ranchman hoarsely.
"It's bad enough--as it is!"
"But what happened to Nort?" asked Dick, and there was a sob in his
voice.
"He must have been carried away--down that stream--wherever it goes,"
asserted Snake Purdee.
"That's just the point, where does it go?" Dick asked.
"Wait a minute," counseled Bud. "Let's see if we can reason this out."
He paused to give it thought. "The way this stream is running now," he
resumed, "wouldn't put any water into our reservoir, would it?"
"No," answered Yellin' Kid, and for once his voice was softened. "Th'
water is all being shunted down this passage--where Nort fell."
"But," resumed Bud, "this passage has always been here. We didn't see
it before, as we walked on the other side of the main channel. Then if
this side channel has always been here, and we managed to get water
through our pipe when it was here, it stands to reason that it must
fill in time, enabling the water to run along here," and he indicated
the regular channel that extended back of them out toward Flume Valley.
"That's so!" cried Old Billee. "There's an end, or a bottom, t' this
channel somewhere, and poor Nort can't be carried all the way through
th' earth."
"But--but," faltered Dick. "It may be too late to save him when this
side passage fills up."
"What I was going to propose," went on Bud, "is that we see if we can't
follow along this newly-discovered side passage, as we have been
following the main bed of the underground river."
He paused to let his companions visualize this suggestion.
"Do you think that would be safe?" asked Old Billee. "I mean," he
added quickly, "will that be th' safest way t' try an' save Nort? I
won't back down on anything--I guess you know that--but I was just
wondering if there was some other way."
"There might be," said Bud. "We could go along on the left side of the
stream, and see if there is a crossing place farther on. We saw some
narrow places when we were here before, but it's a question how much
water they'd have in them now."
"Oh, but can't we do something?" cried Dick, now almost sobbing, though
he was making a brave effort to conquer himself. "Oh, Nort! Nort!
Where are you?" he cried frenziedly.
But again only the echoes answered.
"Come on!" cried Old Billee suddenly. "We'll try this way. We've got
t' do something!"
"Leave our packs here," suggested Yellin' Kid, and again his voice was
low, as if in deference to Dick's feelings. "We can put 'em up on that
ledge," he added, indicating a small one on their side of the
underground stream. "The water doesn't appear to have been up there in
years. If we leave our things here we'll be better able to help
Nort--if we find him," he added in a voice so low that only Old Billee
heard.
"Take our lanterns," suggested Snake Purdee.
"And ropes," went on Bud. "We may need 'em!"
Accordingly the food and other supplies, which the searchers after the
secret of the underground water course had brought with them, were put
up on the ledge, and then they started down the black passage through
which the stream appeared to have branched, carrying Nort with it.
There was room but for one to walk at a time on this "bank," as it
might be called, of the hidden stream, and they had to proceed in
single file.
"I'd like to see a map of this place, so we'd know where we were
going," spoke Old Billee, as he swung his lantern from side to side in
an endeavor to disclose the hidden secrets of the place.
"I have an idea that the underground stream is shaped like the letter
T," spoke Bud. "The top, or cross stem, is the part that extends from
the river to our reservoir. We are now walking along the upright
piece."
"But if the main part of the T is also a stream, and the water is
running down that, as it is, instead of along the main stem, it becomes
for the time being a letter L, doesn't it?" asked Snake.
"Yes," assented Bud. "And as long as the water turns at right angles,
as it does at the place where Nort fell in, and as long as the water
runs along this same side passage, we don't get any at Flume Valley.
The letter T is in our favor, and L is against us."
"But we didn't see anything like this when we were here before,"
remarked Dick.
"Because we weren't on this side," Bud answered. "And I have an idea
that, in time, this second passage finally fills with water completely,
and when it does the stream again flows along the cross stem of the T
and we get it."
"Mebby you're right," Old Billee agreed. "But this isn't finding Nort."
"Will we--will we ever find him?" faltered Dick.
"Sure!" declared Bud, as heartily as he could.
But as they progressed in the darkness, stopping now and then to look
about by means of the light, calling again and again, and as no reply
came, even the heart of the stoutest of them sank in despair.
All they could see was black, rushing water, flowing in a channel it
appeared to have cut, after countless years, in the solid rock. There
was a narrow footpath, so to speak, on either side of this stream, and
it was along this the searchers were walking.
Suddenly Bud, who was in the lead, uttered a strange cry.
"What's the matter?" exclaimed Dick. "Do you see him?"
"No! But look!" went on Bud. "We have come out into a regular
underground cave! It's as big as a house!"
He flashed his lantern around in a circle, and as the others came up
and stood beside him, at a spot where the passageway beside the stream
widened, they saw that they had emerged into a great vault.
And as they stood there, awed and marveling, there came to them, above
the rustle and whispering of the rushing waters, the sound of a human
voice--it was as though someone, sorely hurt, had moaned.
"Listen!" cried Dick.
"Hold up your lanterns!" commanded Bud sharply.
As they raised them, throwing the combined light farther out across the
stream that had widened into a pool in the vault, Dick uttered a cry.
"I see him! I see Nort!" yelled Dick. "There, on the rock!"
And he pointed to the huddled figure of some one on a great rock in the
middle of the pool of black water, which seemed, a short distance from
the inflowing stream, to be as quiet as a lake. And, as they watched
in the gleam of the lights, the figure on the rock moved slightly.
"Nort! Nort!" cried Dick, and his voice was flung back in deafening
echoes from the vaulted roof.