chot remained silent for several seconds, looking at the rough plan which rick had sketched out. he turned it first to one side and then the other, even looking at it upside down.
“why don’t you stand on your head?” asked rick with a chuckling laugh. he was happy because chot appeared to agree with his theory, or idea, which seemed wild enough at first.
“i’m trying to look at it in all sort of ways before we tackle it,” chot said.
“will you try it with me?” eagerly asked rick.
“i sure will!” came the quick answer. “but aren’t you going to let your uncle tod in on it?”
rick slowly shook his head.
“not just yet,” he answered. “i want to go back to the second tunnel before i say anything, and look around, now that i have drawn out this plan. i just wanted to see what you thought of it.”
“all right,” agreed chot. “maybe it will be best to say nothing until we’re a little more sure. but it looks all right to me,” he added as again he glanced at the drawing before handing it back to rick. “how did you come to think of it?” he asked.
“well, i got thinking how queer it was that all those rocks should be piled up there to the left of the place where we came out of the other end of the tunnel,” answered rick. “it didn’t seem right they should be there naturally, and when i looked at them yesterday i saw they had been blasted out.”
“blasted out?” cried chot in amazement.
“yes, some explosive has been used there,” declared rick, positively.
“then somebody must have done it!” exclaimed his chum.
“sure they did.”
“on purpose?”
“why else?”
“you mean they blasted away a rocky wall and made lost river lose itself again, rick?”
“something like that, yes. but i can’t tell any more about it until we go take a look. we’ll go there with this map—maybe i haven’t got it just right, ’cause i made it from memory. but we’ll go take another look, and i can fix any mistakes i made. then, if it seems to be like what i think, we’ll tackle it ourselves.”
“on our own, you mean?” asked chot.
“sure! why not? if we tell uncle tod he may only laugh and say we can’t do it.”
“and if we tell sam he’ll only look over his shoulder and say a ghost will get us,” chuckled chot. “yes, i guess we’d better go on our own. but we’ll take ruddy, of course?” he questioned.
“oh, sure!” exclaimed rick.
the two boys bent over the drawing rick had made. it appeared as shown on next page.
“can you understand it?” asked rick.
“sure—most of it,” answered chot. “here’s our camp, and the flume where they used to wash out the pay dirt when they had water.”
“lost river came from the tunnel, as i have drawn it,” went on rick, “and the dotted lines show where it used to run in the tunnel. i’ve left off the top of the tunnel so you could see what i mean.”
“i see,” said chot.
“then,” continued rick, pointing with his pencil, “we come to the opening of the second tunnel—i don’t exactly mean a second tunnel—”
“you mean the second opening of the tunnel, ’cause there’s only one tunnel,” suggested chot.
“that’s it—yes,” assented rick. “and at this second opening is where there was a division—the water seemed to flow down into green valley.”
“i see,” said chot.
“and here,” went on rick, “where i’ve marked it, is a pile of rocks. now i claim these rocks were blasted out of the side of the hill and piled there, either by the blast or afterward. and, what’s more, chot, i think those rocks hide another opening into the tunnel. you know, it branches off and goes under the hill again.”
“like the letter y?” asked chot.
“that’s it. and i think lost river came out of the left hand branch of the y and flowed down inside our tunnel to a point near our camp. then it came out into the open where uncle tod and sam used it for the flume. also, at the y, some of the water flowed down into the valley at the place uncle tod calls a watershed, but not as much as went into our tunnel.”
“i see,” said chot. “but what more is there to it?”
“that’s what we’ve got to find out,” said rick. “if i’m right we may find lost river somewhere in back of that pile of stones.”
“but if it’s there, why doesn’t it run out through the stones?” asked chot. “they’re piled up so loose they wouldn’t hold back any water like a dam would.”
“i know it,” agreed rick. “and what i think is that the river has been turned out of its course somewhere back in the other tunnel that’s maybe behind the pile of rocks.”
“you mean lost river is lost in another tunnel?” asked his chum.
“that’s what i think, and it’s up to you and me to find it.”
“i’m with you!” cried chot, eagerly. “it’ll be fun to be on our own, with ruddy to help. but maybe uncle tod won’t let us,” he said, dubiously.
“oh, i guess he will,” spoke rick hopefully. “we’ve been off by ourselves a lot lately—we could go and stay all day—take some grub with us.”
“but maybe it would take longer than a day.”
“that’s nothing. we could stay all night. we’ve been camping before, when we went on scout hikes.”
“sure we have, rick.”
“all right, then if we have to stay all night we will, but we’ll try to do it in one day.”
“first we got to get those stones out of the way and see if there is another tunnel opening,” suggested chot.
“that’s right,” assented his chum. “we’ll do that to-morrow, and then, if we find what we’re looking for, we’ll start next day.”
uncle tod and his partner were so busy seeking another mine location, where they would not have to depend on water, that they paid little attention to the boys or dog. rick, chot and ruddy could wander off where they pleased. so it was an easy matter to proceed to the second opening of the tunnel—the place where they had come out before.
they went by the outside trail, as it was quicker, and there was nothing to be gained by again proceeding through the tunnel. and there, as they looked at the pile of rocks, it was made certain to both boys—in the light of rick’s map—that what rick had said might very likely be true.
behind those stones might easily be another tunnel, and in that tunnel—well, they hoped to find lost river, or a trace of it.
“it’s going to be a lot of work—moving all those stones,” announced chot with a sigh as they gazed at the tumbled mass of broken and jagged rocks.
“oh, not so much,” retorted rick, more cheerfully. “we can move one at a time, and all we need to do is to make an opening so we can get through. if we can bring the river back, the water will soon make a channel for itself.”
“bring lost river back?” cried chot. “how you going to do it?”
“that’s what we’ve got to find out,” answered his chum. “anyhow we’re on our own, now, and maybe we’ll surprise uncle tod.”
then they fell to work upon the rocks, tossing the smaller ones aside, and, with long tree branches for levers, rolling the larger boulders down the side of the mountain.
and, as they labored, they wondered what mystery lay behind the pile of rocks.
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