Nort----"

He did not finish, but Dick sent up a despairing cry:

"Nort! Oh, Nort! Where are you?"

And only the vaulty echoes answered.

"What are we going to do?" asked Snake, who seemed unable to suggest
anything.

"Everybody come here with their lanterns," directed Bud. "And light
that spare one, Billee."

Thus was replaced the one he had dropped in the effort to save himself
from falling into the same torrent that had engulfed his cousin.

And in the light of the lanterns, the one Nort had carried being
forever lost, it seemed they all could see the explanation for the
apparently mysterious action of the underground stream; or, rather, it
was an explanation of part of the mystery; for this was only the
beginning.

Beyond where they stood, in the direction of Pocut River, there flowed
through the ancient channel a body of water larger than that which
usually filled the underground course. This was accounted for, likely,
by the fact that it had been stopped, or dammed, by some natural or
artificial means, and had suddenly been released. Thus the channel was
more fully filled than usual.

But, as I have said, the water came up to the point where the members
of the expedition then stood. From there it made a sudden turn to
their right, as they stood facing the river end of the tunnel. And it
was this sudden turn--this shift in the course of the underground
stream--which prevented it from engulfing our friends.

But it had engulfed Nort.

"I see what happened--or, at least, part of it," spoke Bud while the
others listened. "The waters were suddenly turned on again, or turned
themselves on, and shot this way. Nort heard them and ran down here to
jump across the stream-bed, which was then dry. But he must have
fallen over the edge of this traverse ledge, or channel, as I nearly
did, and down he went!"

They looked, and agreed that this was very likely how it had taken
place.

"But can't we save him?" pleaded Dick. "I'm a good swimmer. Let me
try to get him! Maybe he's lying down there--on the bottom!"

He made as if to take off his coat, but Old Billee grabbed him by the
arm.

"You'd only go t' your death, boy!" said the old ranchman hoarsely.
"It's bad enough--as it is!"

"But what happened to Nort?" asked Dick, and there was a sob in his
voice.

"He must have been carried away--down that stream--wherever it goes,"
asserted Snake Purdee.

"That's just the point, where does it go?" D