ow truly he spoke was evidenced by that fact that another inch of rise
would have sent the flood over the ledge on which the boys rested!

So narrow had been their escape!

"If she only doesn't begin to rise again, after she starts going
down--as you say she is--we'll be all right," said Dick. "But if she
comes up----"

He did not finish what he started to say, but his companions knew what
he meant, and they looked each other in the face with grave
apprehensions.

"The question is now," went on Bud, as he again took an observation and
noted that the flood was still on the descent, "how long we shall have
to stay here."

"If it's too long we'll be wanting some of that grub which was washed
away," asserted Diet. "In fact I dropped a sandwich half eaten."

"Same here," remarked his brother. "But let's hope that it will go
down as suddenly as it came up."

That was all they could do--hope; but it bore fruits, for in about an
hour, as they ascertained by glances at their watches, the flood was
almost down to the normal channel of the underground stream.

"And if it will only stay there we can venture to keep on to the other
end of the tunnel," spoke Bud.

"Will you do that?" Dick wanted to know.

"Why not?" asked Bud. "We want to see what happened, and where this
water goes to when it disappears so suddenly; don't we?"

"Yes," agreed Dick. "But I thought, after our escape, that we had
better head back for camp."

"It's about six of one and half a dozen of the other," asserted Bud.
"We're almost half way through the tunnel, now, and we might as well
keep on. I'd like to solve this mystery, and we can't if we call it
off now."

"That's right," assented Nort. "We don't run any more danger going on
to the river end of the tunnel than we would in going back to the camp
end. That is unless we discover a big cavern, or hole through to
China, in the other end of the tunnel. Even then we might be able to
skirt around it."

"Let's go on!" suggested Bud, as he prepared to climb down off the
ledge. "This thing has my goat!"

"Speaking of goats is most appropriate on a cattle ranch," laughed
Nort, and the spirits of all the lads were lighter now. "But let's
keep on to the end for which we started!"

This was agreed to and, after waiting a little while to make sure that
the waters were not again going to rise, away started the boy ranchers.
They were traveling lighter now, for they only had one lantern, and