CHAPTER XXIV
A POWERFUL STREAM
"Better look out!" came the high-pitched voice of Yellin' Kid.
"There may be a flood here!" added Old Billee.
"Can't we get those rascals?" cried Snake Purdee. "I'd 'a' had th'drop on 'em in another second if they hadn't doused that glim!"
As he spoke they could all hear the rush of iron-nailed shoes when thewearers of them scrambled over hard rocks in their effort to escape.
Mingled with that sound was the strange one of rushing water.Realizing that danger might come to them more through the agency of thestrangely-acting underground stream than from the actions of theconspirators, Bud and Nort flashed their lanterns on the water-coursebehind them and around the bend which they had turned to behold thestrange scene.
"It's going down!" cried Bud, for there was no longer any advantage inconcealment or silence, as long as Del Pinzo and the others had fled."It's receding!"
"Just as the other did!" added Dick. "They must have opened a gatehere and let the water out!"
"They've done something!" cried Bud, "and we've got to find out what itis."
"Did you hear that about a fuse?" demanded Snake. "Maybe they're goingto blow the place up!"
"If they do, and the tunnel caves in, good-bye to my water!" said Bud.
"Yes, and good-night to _us_!" grimly added Old Billee.
"Come on!" cried Yellin' Kid. "Let's see what's up there in that holein the wall, anyhow!"
"And have your guns ready!" warned Snake Purdee.
However, as it developed, the weapons were not needed. When the boyranchers and their friends managed to scramble up the rocky way, aboveand to the right of the second hidden, branching stream, and foundthemselves in what was virtually a little natural recess hollowed outof the rocky wall, they saw that it was deserted.
But there were plain evidences of the fact that the men they had seenhad fled in a hurry, as, indeed, they had practically witnessed.Playing cards, cigarettes, tobacco and bottles were scattered on a rudewooden table, and there were several candle-ends stuck in the necks offlasks. The smell of the extinguished candles was heavy on the air.
"But where did they go?" asked Bud, when a hasty glance around therocky room disclosed no occupants.
"What's that?" asked Dick, pointing to what seemed to be a hole in thefloor at one corner.
"It's a passage!" cried Billee, holding his lantern above it. "An' bigenough, even for me! I'm going down!"
"Will it be safe?" asked Nort. "It may lead into the stream, or towhere they have planted a mine--they spoke of a fuse----"
"You've got to take chances in times like these!" declared Old Billee."I guess if they went down it will suit us."
"Unless they can close it up, or turn water in," suggested Snake,dubiously.
"Git out! I'm going down!" stoutly declared the rather fleshy veterancow puncher, and when he let himself down the hole the others followed.
There was a natural stairway, or what served the same purpose, leadingdown out of the stone room where the conspirators had been evidentlyplotting so far underground. The passage went down, at first, like aflight of steep, cellar stairs. Then it straightened out, and, aftertwists and turns, led upward.
"Where are we going?" asked Nort.
"Nobody knows!" grimly answered Bud. "But it's safe so far!"
"And we're right on their trail!" added Snake.
"How do you know?" asked Billee.
For answer Snake paused and pointed to a smouldering cigarette stub onthe rocky floor of the passage that had led out of the conspirators'niche.
"That wasn't dropped many minutes ago," declared the cowboy. "Theycame along here."
This was evident, but it was also evident that Del Pinzo and hisconspirators were sufficiently in advance to escape. For, with anothersudden turn, the passage led to another natural, rocky stairway, andwhen this had been mounted the boy ranchers found themselves again inthe main tunnel.
"What's this?" cried Bud, when it was evident that they had come backto the place whence they had started, but farther on, and nearer to theriver end of the tunnel. "This is a regular maze!"
"But where is Del Pinzo?" asked Dick.
"Out there, I fancy," and Nort pointed to where the main tunnelextended under the mountain and beyond, to the dam in Pocut River."They've gotten away!"
"And about time, too!" added Snake, "or they'd be trapped as we may be!"
"Trapped!" cried Old Billee. "What do you mean?"
"I mean there's a mine set here, somewhere! Don't you smell powdersmoke?"
A sharp, acrid odor, once smelled never forgotten, came to the nostrilsof all as they stood there in the tunnel, while the stream flowedbeside them. Whatever the conspirators had done, they had, evidently,not shut off all the water.
"There it is!" cried Dick, and he pointed to where, in the light of thelanterns, there could be seen, slowly ascending, a thin wisp of smoke.
"Look out!" yelled Old Billee as Dick dashed forward. "It may explode!"
Then, as Dick rushed up with his lantern, they saw trailing over thefloor of the tunnel, and on the same side of the stream as themselves,a thin white fuse, like a sinister snake. It was this burning fusewhich caused the smoke.
It was the work of but an instant for Dick to step on it, andextinguish the smouldering spark, while it yet had some distance totravel before the fuse lost itself in a mass of rocks.
"Whew! That was a close call!" exclaimed. Bud, when the fuse wasentirely out.
"Let's see where it leads to," suggested Snake.
They followed it up, and discovered a hidden mine of explosives, tampeddown into a hole that had been drilled in the rocky floor. Iron bars,hammers and other mining implements showed that the perpetrators of thedastardly deed had evidently fled in a hurry.
"They were going to blow up the tunnel!" cried Nort.
"And when that collapsed it would mean the end of Flume Valley," spokeBud soberly.
"We never could have opened the tunnel again, with all these strange,branching streams playing around inside."
"But we reached here just in time!" declared Old Billee. "Now let'sget t' th' bottom of this. We know there's a main stream, an' twobranching streams. One of th' branching streams is controlled by th'water gate with th' copper handle."
"And there must be another gate here, or else Del Pinzo and his crowdcouldn't have shut off the water as they did before they ran away,"went on Bud. "There must be a whole maze of water-courses in this oldtunnel. Probably the Aztecs dug 'em to save their gold and othervaluables. But I'd like to know what that roaring is?" and as Bud andthe others listened they could hear a subdued murmur, a rumbling androaring sound, that seemed to shake the whole tunnel near where theystood.
"Maybe this leads to it," suggested Dick, as he walked along andsuddenly flashed his lantern across another opening--a natural stairwayleading down into black depths.
"Let's try it," said Bud.
Down it they went, one at a time, carrying their lanterns. And as theyadvanced, descending until they came to a level passage, the murmur androaring became louder.
"Would you look at that!" suddenly cried. Bud, in an awe-strickenvoice, as he came to a stop and pointed ahead.
And then, as the others gathered about him and looked, they saw awondrous sight.
They had entered a cavern, similar to the one where Nort had beenfound, but not so large. And from the very centre, it appeared, of theuneven rocky floor of the cave there spouted out a stream of waterabout three inches in diameter.
Solid white was this stream of water, like a bar of glass, and it shotout of a round hole in the floor as a stream comes from the nozzle of afire hose. It was inclined at an angle of about forty-five degrees,was this strange stream of water, and whence it came and whither itwent to the boys and their friends could only guess.
It was this powerful, rushing stream, under immense head and power itseemed, that caused th
e rumbling, roaring sound. It appeared to strikeagainst some rocky wall a long distance off, so far that the light ofthe lanterns could not penetrate to it, and the searchers did not feellike venturing beyond the point where the terrific stream issued.
That it was of awful power was evidenced a moment later, for Bud, whohad picked up one of the bars of iron, used by the conspirators to settheir sinister mine, approached the stream and, raising the bar,brought it down with all his force on the white, spurting jet.
On an instant the heavy rod was torn from his grasp, and whirledforward into the blackness beyond. There was a ringing, metallic soundas it hit some distant rock, and then it came bounding back, slidingacross the rocky floor to the very feet of the searchers.
"Look at that!" murmured Bud, as he stooped and picked up the bar. Itwas bent and twisted into a sort of combined S and U shape, muteevidence of the terrific power of the stream.
"That would bore right through a man!" said Dick.
"Like making a hole in cheese!" added Old Billee. "This is a terribleplace! Let's get out!"