CHAPTER IX
THE UNDERGROUND STREAM
It was on a Saturday morning that we made this discovery, and as myfather and mother had both driven down to San Remo and would not be backtill sunset, we could not ask permission to abandon our regular work andgo exploring. But, as I had said to Joe, though he trusted us to workfaithfully at any task we might undertake, my father also expected us touse our own discretion in any matter which might turn up when he was notat hand to advise with us.
I had, therefore, no hesitation in driving back to the ranch, when,having unloaded our one stone and stabled the mules, Joe and I, takingwith us a long, stout rope and the stable-lantern, retraced our steps tothe wildcat's house.
The first thing to be done was to enlarge the entrance so that we mighthave daylight to work by, and this being accomplished, we lighted thelantern and lowered it by a cord into the hole. We found, however, thata bulge in the rock prevented our seeing to the bottom, and all wegained by this move was to ascertain that the crevice was about fortyfeet deep, as we had guessed. The next thing, therefore, was for one ofus to go down, and the only way to do this was to slide down a rope.
This, doubtless, would be easy enough, but the climbing up again mightbe another matter. We were not afraid to venture on this score, however,for, as it happened, we had both often amused ourselves by climbing arope hung from one of the rafters in the hay-barn, and though that was aclimb of only twenty feet, we had done it so often and so easily that wedid not question our ability to ascend a rope of double the length.
"Who's to go down, Joe, you or I?" I asked.
"Whichever you like, Phil," replied my companion. "I suppose you'd liketo be the first, wouldn't you?"
"Oh, yes, that's a matter of course," I answered, "but as you are thediscoverer you ought to have first chance, so down you go, old chap!"
"Very well, then," said Joe, "if you say so, I'll go."
"Well, I do--so that settles it."
I knew Joe well enough to be sure he would be eager to be the first, andthough I should have liked very much to take the lead myself, it seemedto me only just that Joe, as the original discoverer, should, as I hadsaid, be given the choice.
This question being decided, we tied one end of the rope around a bigstone, heavy enough to hold an elephant, and dropped the other end intothe hole. The descent at first was very easy, for the walls being onlythree feet apart, and there being many rough projections on either side,it was not much more difficult than going down a ladder, especially asI, standing a little to one side, lowered the lantern bit by bit, thatJoe might have a light all the time to see where to set his feet.
Arrived at the bulge, Joe stopped, and standing with one foot on eitherwall, looked up and said:
"It opens out below here, Phil; I shall have to slide the rest of theway. You might lower the lantern down to the bottom now, if you please."
I did so at once, and then asked:
"Can you see the bottom, Joe?"
"Yes," he replied. "The crevice is much wider down there, and the floorseems to be smooth and dry. I can't see any sign of water anywhere, butI can hear it plainly enough. Good-bye for the present; I'm going downnow."
With that he disappeared under the bulge in the wall, while I, placingmy hand upon the rope, presently felt the strain slacken, whereupon Icalled out:
"All right, Joe?"
"All right," came the answer.
"How's the air down there?"
"Seems to be perfectly fresh."
"Can you see the water?"
"No, I can't; but I can hear it. There's a heap of big rocks in thepassage to the south and the splashing comes from the other side of it.I'm going to untie the lantern, Phil, and go and explore a bit. Justwait a minute."
Very soon I heard his voice again calling up to me.
"It's all right, Phil. I've found the water. You may as well come down."
"Look here, Joe," I replied. "Before I come down, it might be as wellto make sure that you can come up."
"There's something in that," said Joe, with a laugh. "Well, then, I'llcome up first."
I felt the rope tauten again, and pretty soon my companion's headappeared, when, scrambling over the bulge, he once more stood astride ofthe crevice, and looking up said:
"It's perfectly safe, Phil. The only troublesome bit is in getting overthe bulge, and that doesn't amount to anything. It's safe enough for youto come down."
"Very well, then, I'll come; so go on down again."
Taking a candle we had brought with us, I set it on a projection whereit would cast a light into the fissure, and seizing the rope, down Iwent. The descent was perfectly easy, and in a few seconds I foundmyself standing beside Joe at the bottom.
The crevice down here was much wider than above--ten or twelve feet--thefloor, composed of sandstone, having a decided downward tilt towards thesouth. In this direction Joe, lantern in hand, led the way.
Piled up in the passage was a large heap of lava-blocks which hadfallen, presumably, through the opening above, and climbing over these,we saw before us a very curious sight.
"WE SAW BEFORE US A VERY CURIOUS SIGHT"]
On the right hand side of the crevice--that is to say, on the western orSecond Mesa side--between the sandstone floor and the lowest ledge oflava, there issued a thin sheet of water, coming out with such forcethat it swept right across, and striking the opposite wall, turned andran off southward--away from us, that is. Only for a short distance,however, it ran in that direction, for we could see that the streampresently took another turn, this time to the eastward, presumablyfinding its way through a crack in the lava of the First Mesa.
"I'm going to see where it goes to," cried Joe; and pulling off hisboots and rolling up his trousers, he waded in. He expected to find thewater as cold as the iced water of any other mountain stream, but to hissurprise it was quite pleasantly warm.
"I'll tell you what it is, Phil," said he, stepping back again for amoment. "This water must run under ground for a long distance to be aswarm as it is. And what's more, there must be a good-sized reservoirsomewhere between the lava and the sandstone to furnish pressure enoughto make the water squirt out so viciously as it does."
Entering the stream again, which, though hardly an inch deep, came outof the rock with such "vim" that when it struck his feet it flew upnearly to his knees, Joe waded through, and then turning, shouted to me:
"It goes down this way, Phil, through a big crack in the lava. It justgoes flying. Don't trouble to come"--observing that I was about to pulloff my own boots--"you can't see any distance down the crack."
But whatever there was to be seen, I wanted to see too, and disregardinghis admonition, I pretty soon found myself standing beside my companion.
The great cleft into which we were peering was about six feet wide atthe bottom, coming together some twenty feet above our heads, havingbeen apparently widened at the base by the action of the water, which,being here ankle-deep, rushed foaming over and around the many blocks oflava with which the channel was encumbered. As far as we could see, thefissure led straight away without a bend; and Joe was for trying towalk down it at once. I suggested, however, that we leave that for thepresent and try another plan.
"Look here, Joe," said I. "If we try to do that we shall probably getpretty wet, and stand a good chance besides of hurting our feet amongthe rocks. Now, I propose that we go down to the ranch again, get ourrubber boots, and at the same time bring back with us my father'scompass and the tape-measure and try to survey this water-course. Bydoing that, and then by following the same line on the surface, we maybe able to decide whether it is really this stream which keeps 'theforty rods' so wet."
"I don't think there can be any doubt about that," Joe replied; "but Ithink your plan is a good one, all the same, so let us do it."
We did not waste much time in getting down to the ranch and back again,when, pulling on our rubber boots, we proceeded to make our survey. Itwas not an easy task.
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bsp; With the ring at the end of the tape-measure hooked over my littlefinger, I took a candle in that hand and the compass in the other, andhaving ascertained that the course of the stream was due southeast, Itold Joe to go ahead. My partner, therefore, with his arm slippedthrough the handle of the lantern and with a pole in his hand with whichto test the depth of the stream, thereupon started down the passage,stepping from rock to rock when possible, and taking to the water whenthe rocks were too far apart, until, having reached the limit of thetape-measure, he made a mark upon the wall with a piece of white chalk.
This being done, I noted on a bit of paper the direction and thedistance, when Joe advanced once more, I following as far as to thechalk-mark, when the operation was repeated.
In this manner we worked our way, slowly and carefully, down thepassage, the direction of which varied only two or three degrees to oneside or the other of southeast, until, having advanced a little morethan a thousand feet, we found our further progress barred.
For some time it had appeared to us that the sound of splashing waterwas increasing in distinctness, though the stream itself made so muchnoise in that hollow passage that we could not be sure whether we wereright or not. At length, however, having made his twentieth chalk-mark,indicating one thousand feet, Joe, waving his lantern for me to comeon, advanced once more; but before I had come to his last mark, hestopped and shouted back to me that he could go no farther.
Wondering why not, I slowly waded forward, Joe himself winding up thetape-measure as I approached, until I found myself standing beside mycompanion, when I saw at once "why not."
The stream here took a sudden dive down hill, falling about three feetinto a large pool, the limits of which we could not discern--for wecould see neither sides nor end--its surface unbroken, except in a fewplaces where we could detect the ragged points of big lava-blocksprojecting above the water, while here and there a rounded bouldershowed its smooth and shining head.
Joe, very carefully descending to the edge of the pool, measured thedepth with his rod, when, finding it to be about four feet deep, weconcluded that we would let well enough alone and end our survey at thispoint.
"Come on up, Joe," I called out. "No use trying to go any farther: it'stoo dangerous; we might get in over our heads."
"Just a minute," Joe replied. "Let's see if we can't find out which waythe current sets in the pool."
With that he took from his pocket a newspaper he had brought with him incase for any purpose we should need to make a "flare," and crumplingthis into a loose ball he set it afloat in the pool. Away it sailed,quickly at first, and then more slowly; and taking a sight on it as faras it was distinguishable, I found that the set of the current continuedas before--due southeast.
"All right, Joe," I cried. "Come on, now." And Joe, giving me the end ofhis stick to take hold of, quickly rejoined me, when together we madeour way carefully up the stream again, and climbing the rope, once morefound ourselves out in the daylight.
"Now, Joe," said I, "let us run our line and find out where it takesus."
Having previously measured the distance from the point where theunderground stream turned southeast to where the rope hung down, we nowmeasured the same distance back again along the foot of the bluff, andthence, ourselves turning southeastward, we measured off a thousandfeet. This brought us down to the lowest of the old lake-benches, abouta hundred yards back of the house, when, sighting along the same linewith the compass, we found that that faithful little servant pointed usstraight to the entrance of the lower canyon.
"Then that does settle it!" cried Joe. "We've found the stream thatkeeps 'the forty rods' wet; there can be no doubt of it."
It did, indeed seem certain that we had at last discovered the streamwhich supplied "the forty rods" with water; but allowing that we _had_discovered it:--what then? How much better off were we?
Beneath our feet, as we had now every reason to believe, ran thelong-sought water-course, but between us and it was a solid bed of lavaabout forty feet thick; and how to get the water to the surface, andthus prevent it from continuing to render useless the meadow below, wasa problem beyond our powers.
"It beats me," said Joe, taking off his hat and tousling his hairaccording to custom. "I can see no possible way of doing it. We shallhave to leave it to your father. Perhaps he may be able to think of aplan. Do you suppose he'll venture to go down the rope, Phil?"
"No, I don't," I replied. "It is all very well for you and me, with ourone hundred and seventy pounds, or thereabouts, but as my father weighsforty pounds more than either of us, and has not been in the habit ofclimbing ropes for amusement as long as I can remember, I think thechances are that he won't try it."
"I suppose not. It's a pity, though, for I'm sure he would betremendously interested to see the stream down there in the crevice.Couldn't we----Look here, Phil: couldn't we set up a ladder to reachfrom the bottom up to the bulge?"
I shook my head.
"I don't think so," I answered. "It would take a ladder twenty feetlong, and the bulge in the wall would prevent its going down."
"That's true. Well, then, I'll tell you what we can do. We'll make twoladders of ten feet each--a ten-foot pole will go down easilyenough--set one on the floor of the crevice and the other on that wideledge about half way up to the bulge. What do you think of that?"
"Yes, I think we could do that," I replied. "We'll try it anyhow. But wemust go in and get some dinner now: it's close to noon."
We did not take long over our dinner--we were too anxious to get towork again--and as soon as we had finished we selected from our supplyof fire-wood four straight poles, each about ten feet long, and withthese, a number of short pieces of six-inch plank, a hammer, a saw and abag of nails, we drove back to the scene of action.
Even a ten-foot pole, we found, was an awkward thing to get down to thebottom of the fissure, but after a good deal of coaxing we succeeded inlowering them all, when we at once set to work building our ladders.
The first one, standing on the floor of the crevice, reached as high asthe ledge Joe had mentioned, while the second, planted upon the ledgeitself, leaned across the chasm, its upper end resting against the rockjust below the bulge, so that, with the rope to hold on by, it ought tobe easy enough to get up and down. It is true that the second ladderbeing almost perpendicular, looked a little precarious, but we had takengreat care to set it up solidly and were certain it could not slip. Asto the strength of the ladders, there was nothing to fear on that score,for the smallest of the poles was five inches in diameter at the littleend.
This work took us so long, for we were very careful to make thingsstrong and firm, that it was within half an hour of sunset ere we hadfinished, and as it was then too late to begin hauling rocks, we drovedown to the ranch again at once.
As we came within sight of the house, we had the pleasure of seeing thebuggy with my father and mother in it draw up at the door. Observing uscoming, they waited for us, when, the moment we jumped out of the wagon,before we could say a word ourselves, my father exclaimed:
"Hallo, boys! What are you wearing your rubber boots for?"
My mother, however, looking at our faces instead of at our feet, withthat quickness of vision most mothers of boys seem to possess, saw atonce that something unusual had occurred.
"What's happened, Phil?" she asked.
"We've made a discovery," I replied, "and we want father to come and seeit."
"Can't I come, too?" she inquired, smiling at my eagerness.
"I'm afraid not," I answered. "I wish you could, but I'm afraid yourpetticoats would get in the way."
To this, perceiving easily enough that we had some surprise in store formy father, and not wishing to spoil the fun, my mother merely replied:
"Oh, would they? Well, I'm afraid I couldn't come anyhow: I must go inand prepare supper. So, be off with you at once, and don't be late. Youcan tell me all about it this evening."
"One minute, father!" I cried; and thereupon I ran to the
house,reappearing in a few seconds with his rubber boots, which I thrust intothe back of the buggy, and then, climbing in on one side while Joescrambled in on the other, I called out:
"Now, father, go ahead!"
"Where to?" he asked, laughing.
"Oh, I forgot," said I. "Up to our stone-quarry."
If we had expected my father to be surprised, we were not disappointed.At first he rather demurred at going down our carefully preparedladders, not seeing sufficient reason, as he declared, to risk his neck;but the moment we called his attention to the sound of water down below,and he began to understand what the presence of the rubber boots meant,he became as eager as either Joe or I had been.
In short, he went with us over the whole ground, even down to the pool;and so interested was he in the matter that he quite forgot the flightof time, until, having reascended the ladders and followed with us ourline on the surface down to the heap of stones with which we had markedthe thousand-foot point, he--and we, too--were recalled to our duties bymy mother, who, seeing us standing there talking, came to the back-doorof the kitchen and called to us to come in at once if we wanted anysupper.
Long was the discussion that ensued that evening as we sat around thefire in the big stone fireplace; but long as it was, it ended as it hadbegun with a remark made by my father.
"Well," said he, as he leaned back in his chair and crossed hisslippered feet before the fire, "it appears to come to this: instead ofdiscovering a way to drain 'the forty rods,' you have only provided uswith another insoluble problem to puzzle our heads over. There seems tobe no way that we can figure out--at present, anyhow--by which the watercan be brought to the surface, and consequently our only resource is,apparently, to discover, if possible, where it first runs in under thelava-bed, to come squirting out again down in that fissure--an almosthopeless task, I fear."
"It does look pretty hopeless," Joe assented; "though we have found outone thing, at least, which may be of service in our search, and that isthat the water runs between the lava and the sandstone. That fact shouldbe of some help to us, for it removes from the list of streams to beexamined all those whose beds lie below the sandstone."
"That's true enough," I agreed. "But, then again, the source may not besome mountain stream running off under the lava, as we have beensupposing. It is quite possible that it is a spring which comes upthrough the sandstone, and not being able to get up to daylight becauseof the lava-cap, goes worming its way through innumerable crevices tothe underground reservoir we suppose to exist somewhere beneath thesurface of the Second Mesa."
"That is certainly a possibility," replied my father. "Nevertheless, itis my opinion that it will be well worth while making an examination ofthe creeks on Mount Lincoln. The streams to search would be thoserunning on a sandstone bed and coming against the upper face of thelava-flow. It is worth the attempt, at least, and when the snow clearsoff you boys shall employ any off-days you may have in that way."
"It would be well, wouldn't it, to tell Tom Connor about it?" suggestedJoe. "He would keep his eyes open for us. I suppose prospectors as arule don't take much note of such things, but Tom would do so, I'm sure,if we asked him."
"Yes," replied my father. "That is a good idea; and if either of youshould come across your friend, the hermit, again, be sure to ask him.He knows Mount Lincoln as nobody else does, and if he had ever noticedanything of the sort he would tell us. Don't forget that. And now tobed."