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6
TRACKING A BURIED STREAM.
The Adventures of Two Sailoi
Boys In finest of the
Conrseofaßiver.
“The sum of 3,000 frauds (600
dollars) will lie paid by tli-\
Scientific Association of Morlaix
to anyone who shall succeed iu j
tracing the’eonrse of the Larve,
and ascertaining whether it has j
any underground communication !
with the sea.
“Felix Delahochk, President."
Much was the announcement
which, posted in the quaint, three
cornered market-pla e of the old
French town of Longcliump, at
tracted a good many readers,
and among the rest two lads in
sailor costume, one of whom re
marked to the other:
“What a holiday we’d have if
we could earn it! Eh, Pierre, rav
boy?”
“I should think so. But no
body will earn that reward very
soon. Don’t you remember how,
a year ago, they widened the
cleft into which the stream falls
and let down a man witli a lan
tern, and how, before he’d gone
thirty feet, beget bumped against
a rock and broke his lantern and
hurt himself so badly that he had
to be hauled up again?”
“True, it’s not a very likely job.
Well, come along, and let’s get
the boat out.”
Pierre Lebon, the youngest of
the two, was a lithe, olive-cheek
ed, merry little fellow, whose slim
figure and jaunty black curls
contrasted markedly with the
burly frame and thick, sandy
hair of his chum, Jacques Vandry.
The latter ought rightly to have
been called Jack Fordry, for he
was au English boy, born iu
Guernsey, but having been
adopted by a Breton fisherman
after his father’s death, both he
ami his name had got consider
ably “Frenchified.”
The two boys had to manage
by themselves the boat of which
they were joii t owners, for old
Minion Lebon, Pierre’s real and
Jack’s adopted father, was now
too aged and rheumatic to help
thorn iu their work, except by
advising them when to start and
where to go. But his advice was
always good, for iu his time he
had been one of the best fisher
men on the coast, and the boys
were usually very successful.
On this particular day, how
ever, their good luck seemed to
have forsaken them, for, try as
they might, they could catch
nothing worth mentioning.
Possibly they were thinking too
little of their work and too much
of the reward offered hy the
scientific association; for 3,000
francs would have been quite a
fortune to them both. Moreover,
the idea of tracking au under
ground river bad a spice of ro
mence and adventure about it
which was the very thing to tempt
them,
The little stream of the Larve
had long keen the acknowledged
puzzle of the whole neighbor
hood. After skirting the towu
for a distance,it vanished into the !
earth through a narrow cleft, 1
ami was seen no more. Whore it
weut to after that, no ono could
tell; and, us we have seen, the
first attempt to find out had sue-;
seeded so badly that nobody felt
much inclined for a second.
Tired out at length, the unsuc
cessful fishers went homo, in- j
wardly resolving to trv whether
they might not have better for
tune hy night than by day.
Pierre, indeed, when the night
came, began to have some doubts
about the wisdom of the idea,
having heard hi, father say once
atul again that it was a very dan
gerous thing to attempt! at that
season. But the hardest thing
in the world for a boy to do is to
draw back from anything simply
because it is dangerous. liather
than iet Jack think him afraid,
Pierre would have gone to sea
on a hencoop; so they stole out of
the cottage os noiselessly as
possible, aud away they Went
oyer the dim waste of sea, half |
lighted hy the rising moon.
I 1
The “take" of tint) was a very
good one tliiH time, and the boys
lietrau to think tlioir night voyage
a lucky idea; but they were re
joicing too hood. A little after
midnight the sk» began to cloud
over and the sea to rise in away
which showed that there wuh a
storm brewing. They put about
at once aud made for the shore,
; hut lonit before they reached it
|tlif storm burst upon them iu all
j its fury.
In an instant the boat was half
j full of water, and it was all they
I could do to keep her from found
•
I erintr outright, as they flew
through tiie great white roaring j
waves, thumped and banged about:
from side to side, aud drenched
to the skin at every plunge bv the
flying gusts of spray. Pierre
grasped the tiller in liis half
numbed hands, while Jack held
on with all his might to the “sheet”
that steadied their little three
cornered sail, at which the wind
tugged as if meaning to tear it
away altogether.
The little craft held her own
valiantly, and the young sailors
began to hope that, after all,they
might make the entrance of the
bay without accident. But just
then an unlucky shift of the wind
tore the sale clean away, and the
boat, falling off at once,was swept
helplessly toward the formidable
cliffs beyond.
“Net much chance for us now,”
said Jack, shaking his head.
“Pie ,- re, my boy, I’m sorry I’ve
brought you into this mess; it’s
all my fault.”
“Not a bit, old fellow. I ought
to have warned you of what I
heard my father say. However
if the worst comes to the worst,
we can swim for it.”
However, there seemed to be
little hope,for not a foot of stand
ing room was to be seen on the
rocky sides of* the vast black
precipice upon which they were
driving headlong. All at once
Jack shouted:
"Port your helm, Pierre—port!
We’ll do it yet.”
His keen eye had detected a
cleft iu the rock,just wide enough
fin- the boat to enter.
Pierre had barely time to obey,
when thero came a tremendous
crash, and the boyß found thern
solves floundering amid a welter
of foam, nets, sand, dead fish aud
broken timbers, in a deep, dark
hollow that looked like the mouth
of a caye.
"There goes father’s boat,”
sputtered Pierre, as soon as he
could clear his mouth of the salt
water.
“And there go our fish,” added
Jack. “Here’s that loaf we put
in the locker, though; and even
wet bread’s better than none, in
a place like this. Now, then,
let’s he getting higher up, for the
tide will be-upon us here in no
time."
But to get higher up was no
easy matter. They were in utter
darkness,and (as they had already
fouud by groping about) on the
brink of a chasm of uuknown
depth. The ledge upon which
they had been cast was evidently
very- narrow, and almost as slip
pery as ice; and Jack, being en
cumbered with the loaf,and Pierre
badly bruised against the rocks,
they were not iu the best condi
tion for climbing.
Hut the roar of the next wave
as it camo bursting in, splashing
them from head to foot where
they sat, was a wonderful quick
ner to their movements,aud away
they scrambled through the
pitchy darkness, clinging like
limpets to the rough side of the
cavern as they felt their feet slide
upon the treacherous rocks, and j
thought of the unseen gulf be
low.
Onward, onward still, deeper
aud deeper into the heart of the
cold, silent rook, fearing at every
moment to feel their way barred
by a solid wall, and dud them
selves out off from escape, aud
doomed to be drowned by inches.
Hut, no: the strange tunnel went
on aud on as if it would never
end, their only consolation being
that thay were unmistakably
tending upward, aud alteady (as
they calculated) beyond the reach
of the flood tide.
Suddenly Jack uttered a shout j
WALKER COUNTY MESSENGER—fIARCtI 1. UW4.
of joy:
“Hurrah, Pierre! here’s one of
the lantern candles in my inner!
pocket, and I know I’vo got my
mutches, somewhere. We’ll be’
able to see where we are at last,
my boy!”
The matches (luckily still dry)
were produced, the candle was
ignited, and our heroes took a
survey of their surroundings.
They were in a long narrow
passage, rising to a considerable
bight overhead, aud with another
ledge on its opposite side, steep
er and more broken than the one
on which they were. In the cen-
I tor lay the chasm already uieu
, tioued; hut instead of the fright
■ ftil depth which they had imag
! ined, it was only six or seven feet
deep at the most and not more
than half full of water.
“There’s our terrible preci
pice,” laughed Jack, stooping
over it. “I don’t think that would
hurt us much. But—halloa! I
say Pierre, this isn’t sea-brine;
it’s fresh water, running water.
It’s a stream that’s tunneled its
way through tlie rock; and if we
follow it far enough, we’ll get out.
Hurrah!”
“Hurrah!”echoed Pierre, bright
ening up. “We shan’t run short
of water, anyhow;aud as for food
we may as well have a bite of that
loaf before starting again.”
The underground breakfast was
soon finished, and the adventur
ous lads started once more.
But the pain of Pierre’s bruises,
which he had manfully concealed
hitherto, began to master him at
last. Ilia tired limbs began to
drag more and more heavily; his
feet slipped again and again, and
only the strong hand of his com
rade sayed him from more than
one serious fall.
“Better sit down and rest a bit,
old fellow,” said Jack kindly;
“there’s no hurry, for this candle
will burn a tong' while yet. I
know you won’t oWn it, but you
did get a nasty bump against that
rock yonder.”
“I fancy you’re right there,’
answered Pierre, sinking wearily
upon the ledge. “But we don’t
need the candle while we’re sit
ting still, you know. Blow it out
aud light it again when we start.”
Jack did so, and they sat silent
in the darkness. All at once
Pierre heard his comrade call
out:
“I say, don’t you hear water
fulling somewhere?”
“To be sure I do,” replied
Pierre, after listening a moment.
“We must be close to the place
where this stream falls down into
the tunnel, and now we’ll have a
chance of getting out at last.
Bravo!”
Jack slapped his hands together
with a shout that made the cav
ern echo.
“I’ve got an idea, Pierre, my
boy. What a fool I was not to
think of it before! This stream
that we’ve been following is the
Larve, and we’ve got to the very
place where it falls through the
cleft. Now if we can only get out
with whole bones, it’s fifteen hun
dred francs apiece to ns. Come
alone quick!”
All Pierre’s weariness was gone
iu a minute. Already, in his
mind’s eye, he saw his ailing fa
ther comfortably provided for aud
Jack and himself standing out to
sea iu a braud-new boat. The in
stant the candle was lighted they
were off again at a pace which
would have seemed impossible a
few minutes before.
Guided by the increasing din
of the waterfall, they were not
long iu reaching a huge perpen
dicular funnel or chimney iu the
rock; down one side of which
poured a stream of water, while ;
through a cleft above, dazzlingh
radiant after the darkness of the i
buried passage, came a bright j
i g'eam of sunshine. Just then u
big stoue, tluus: from above, cause
thundering down into the chasm,
falling close to the feet of the twoi
explorers.
“That’s the hoys at their fun,'*
said Jack, laughing. “I’ve done !
it mauy a time myself. Above I
there—hoy!”
The only answer was a howl of j
terror and the sound of flying 1
feet. Pierre, alarmed at the -
- thought of being deserter!, shout- j
ml in his tarn:
“Help, cm in iii «;*! Help!”
“ ' bo’s that calling V" a>ked a
l gruff voice from nboye, while the
lierhfc was obscured by a broad
visage peering down into ■ the
hole.
“Halloa, Gasparl! is thatvou?”
j cried Pierre, it cognizing the
! voice of oue of his father’s fisher
cronies.
“What, Pierre "Lebon! you
down lliereV We*!, who ever saw
the )ik< ? Just wont a minute, while
1 run for it rope.”
But befoi > in could return,
ther<- were already more than a
hundred people gathered around
the ho e, for the news of a human
voice having been lizard out of
the “Love Chimney,” its the
chasm was culled, had spread far
and wide. •
The waterfall cm one side and
the sharp rocks on the other made
it no easy matter to draw the boys
up safely. But at length they
were dragged forth into the day
light to be embraced and shouted
over by the whole town, and to
receive, a few days later, the
praises of the entire scientific as
sociation, together with the 3,000
francs which they had so bravely
earned.—Harper’s Young People.
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I Stin g- Wlj]
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