CHAPTER XIII
WHERE DID IT GO?
Pressing back toward the rocky ledge, against which they leaned, gazingwith fearsome eyes at the rising waters, on which the lantern-lightshone fitfully, and almost holding their breaths at times, so great wasthe strain, the boy ranchers waited--for what they scarcely knew. Andyet they did, in a measure.
For they waited to see if the waters would stop rising, a happening, asthey well knew, which, alone, could save their lives.
As one of them had remarked, they might have to swim for it. But,looking at the foaming current, dashing along over jagged rocks onwhich the boys had more than once stumbled, they knew what a risk thateffort to escape would bring.
And should the water fill the whole tunnel they would have no earthlychance!
For only a fish can exist in a hose or pipe completely filled withwater, and that is what the tunnel would become if the water rose tothe roof--merely a great, underground rocky pipe for the conveying ofthe liquid from Pocut River.
So you can easily imagine with what anxiety Bud, Nort and Dick watchedthe rising water. Every now and again one of them would lean over theledge, swinging the lantern to and fro, so its gleams would bereflected in the hurrying, foaming stream, and indicate how fast it wasrising.
At first the rate of rise had been rapid. But as the boys, again andagain, made observations in the semi-gloom Bud, at length, uttered ajoyful cry.
"Look!" he shouted, pointing with trembling finger at the foamy floodclose, now, to the top of the ledge. "Look!"
"What--a big fish?" asked Dick.
"Fish nothing!" retorted his cousin. "But the water is going down!Look, it isn't as high as it was. I can see a wet mark where it cameup to, and it's two inches below that now! The flood is going down!"
"Are you sure?" asked Nort, eagerly.
"Look for yourselves!" invited Bud, handing over the lantern.
Nort's observation was confirmatory of his cousin's.
"She _is_ going down!" remarked Nort. "And just in time, too!"
How truly he spoke was evidenced by that fact that another inch of risewould have sent the flood over the ledge on which the boys rested!
So narrow had been their escape!
"If she only doesn't begin to rise again, after she starts goingdown--as you say she is--we'll be all right," said Dick. "But if shecomes up----"
He did not finish what he started to say, but his companions knew whathe meant, and they looked each other in the face with graveapprehensions.
"The question is now," went on Bud, as he again took an observation andnoted that the flood was still on the descent, "how long we shall haveto stay here."
"If it's too long we'll be wanting some of that grub which was washedaway," asserted Diet. "In fact I dropped a sandwich half eaten."
"Same here," remarked his brother. "But let's hope that it will godown as suddenly as it came up."
That was all they could do--hope; but it bore fruits, for in about anhour, as they ascertained by glances at their watches, the flood wasalmost down to the normal channel of the underground stream.
"And if it will only stay there we can venture to keep on to the otherend of the tunnel," spoke Bud.
"Will you do that?" Dick wanted to know.
"Why not?" asked Bud. "We want to see what happened, and where thiswater goes to when it disappears so suddenly; don't we?"
"Yes," agreed Dick. "But I thought, after our escape, that we hadbetter head back for camp."
"It's about six of one and half a dozen of the other," asserted Bud."We're almost half way through the tunnel, now, and we might as wellkeep on. I'd like to solve this mystery, and we can't if we call itoff now."
"That's right," assented Nort. "We don't run any more danger going onto the river end of the tunnel than we would in going back to the campend. That is unless we discover a big cavern, or hole through toChina, in the other end of the tunnel. Even then we might be able toskirt around it."
"Let's go on!" suggested Bud, as he prepared to climb down off theledge. "This thing has my goat!"
"Speaking of goats is most appropriate on a cattle ranch," laughedNort, and the spirits of all the lads were lighter now. "But let'skeep on to the end for which we started!"
This was agreed to and, after waiting a little while to make sure thatthe waters were not again going to rise, away started the boy ranchers.They were traveling lighter now, for they only had one lantern, and nofood to carry.
The remainder of the tunnel was as the first part had been--a great,uneven tube through the mountain, twisting and turning here and there,sometimes the roof being so high that it did not show in the swinginglantern-light, and again being low enough, almost, for the boys totouch.
On all sides was evidence that the flood had been here, as it had beenat the place where the boys took refuge. Now and then they came todeep pools, which they had to skirt, and, in one case, leap over.
Suddenly, as they were walking along, the lantern which Bud wascarrying went out, leaving them in pitch blackness!
"Hello! What's the idea?" asked Nort.
"Did you do it on purpose?" asked Dick.
"Why, no, of course not!" asserted Bud. "The oil must be gone, thoughI filled it before we started, and it ought to have burned longer thanthis."
"Whew! This is tough!" bemoaned Nort. "Left in the dark!"
"Not altogether!" exclaimed Bud. "I brought some candles!"
"Great!" voiced Nort. "Light up!"
Which Bud did, placing a short length of candle inside the lantern, byfastening it, with some grease that hardened, on top of the oilreservoir of the wick.
"But I can't understand what happened to the lantern," went on Bud,making an examination by means of a second candle, from the store hehad, luckily, placed in his pocket. "Oh, yes, I can!" he went on.
"What?" asked Dick.
"One of the soldered seams of the lantern oil tank started, and the oilhas leaked out. Guess one of us must have banged it against a stonewhen we made the rush. But we'll be all right. A candle in thelantern is nearly as good as the regular wick."
It was not quite so good, but the boys made the best of it as theytramped on through the tunnel, hoping to reach the river end withoutanother flood, or any mishap.
"The water seems to be behaving very nicely," observed Nort, as theyall saw that the stream was well within its rocky channel.
"But what gets me," said Bud, "is where it goes to--when it goes. Imean where does it disappear to? We haven't come to a single branchtunnel, or any other passage that could drain off the river water."
"That's right," agreed his cousins.
"But maybe we'll find it further on," suggested Nort.
"We'll soon know, for we must be close to the other end now," observedBud. "Our candles are holding out well."
They had come several miles, as they knew by the time consumed. Theway through the tunnel had been uphill all the way, as it must needs beto allow the water to run down to the reservoir in Flume Valley. But,so far, they had seen nothing to indicate any side channel for thestream--any place that might drain off the water, and return it in sucha sudden volume as to cause a flood.
"I can't understand it," Bud remarked as he swung the lantern to andfro. "It sure is a puzzle. Where does the water disappear?"
His cousins could offer no solution. All the way along they hadcarefully scanned the underground stream, but there appeared no breakin its uneven, rocky bank in the middle of the tunnel.
"Well, let's keep on," suggested Nort. "We aren't at the end yet, andit may be close to the intake--I mean the mysterious influence--thatshuts off our water supply and turns it on again, may be there.Forward, march!" he cried gaily.
Together they started off, having come to a momentary halt to inspect aplace wider and deeper than usual, when Bud suddenly came to a stop andexclaimed:
"Some one is coming!"