FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>  
s mass was as large as a house. "Look at the hole left when the roots pulled out!" cried Ned. "Why, it's like the crater of a small volcano!" he added. And, as they stood on the edge of it looking curiously at the hole made, the others agreed with Tom's chum. Professor Bumper was looking about, trying to ascertain if there were any evidences of the earthquake in the vicinity, when Tom, who had cautiously gone a little way down into the excavation caused by the fallen trees, uttered a cry of surprise. "Look!" he shouted. "Isn't that some sort of tunnel or underground passage?" and he pointed to a square opening, perhaps seven feet high and nearly as broad, which extended, no one knew where, downward and onward from the side of the hole made by the uprooting of the trees. "It's an underground passage all right," said Professor Bumper eagerly; "and not a natural one, either. That was fashioned by the hand of man, if I am any judge. It seems to go right under the mountain, too. Friends, we must explore this! It may be of the utmost importance! Come, we have our electric torches, and we shall need them, for it's very dark in there," and he peered into the passage in front of which they all stood now. It seemed to have been tunneled through the earth, the sides being lined by either slabs of stone, or walls made by a sort of concrete. "But what about the rescue work?" asked Mr. Damon. "I am not forgetting Professor Beecher and his friends," answered the scientist. "Perhaps this may be a better means of rescuing them than by digging them out, which will take a week at least," observed Tom. "This a better way?" asked Ned, pointing to the tunnel. "That's it," confirmed the savant. "If you will notice it extends back in the direction of the cave from which we were driven. Now if there is a buried city beneath all this jungle, this mountain of earth and stones, the accumulation of centuries, it is probably on the bottom of some vast cavern. It is my opinion that we were only in one end of that cavern, and this may be the entrance to another end of it." "Then," asked Mr. Damon, "do you mean that we can enter here, get into the cave that contains the buried city, or part of it, and find there Beecher and his friends?" "That's it. It is possible, and if we could it would save an immense lot of work, and probably be a surer way to save their lives than by digging a tunnel through the landslide to fin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>  



Top keywords:

tunnel

 

passage

 

Professor

 
buried
 
cavern
 

underground

 
Beecher
 

mountain

 

digging

 

friends


Bumper
 

observed

 

direction

 

extends

 

savant

 
confirmed
 

notice

 

pointing

 

forgetting

 
rescue

concrete

 
volcano
 

rescuing

 

Perhaps

 

scientist

 

crater

 

answered

 
landslide
 

immense

 

jungle


stones

 

accumulation

 

beneath

 

driven

 

centuries

 

bottom

 

entrance

 

opinion

 

pulled

 

downward


onward

 

extended

 

cautiously

 

uprooting

 

eagerly

 

natural

 
ascertain
 

evidences

 

vicinity

 

earthquake