The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-04-10
TRACKING A BURIED RIVER.
rho Adventure of Two sailor Boys.

TRACKING A BURIED RIVER.
The Adventure of Two sailor Boys.
'The sum of 5000 francs $4,000 will be paid
| by the Scientific Association of Moraix to
1 any one who shall succeed in tracing the
course of the Larve, and ascertaining whether
it has any underground communication with
the sea.
! FELIX DELARoCHE, President"
Such was the announcement which,
posted in the quaint three-cornered
market-place of the old French town of
Longchamp, attracted a good many
readers, and among the rest two lads in
sailor costume, one of whom remarked
to the other: Nu
'What holiday we'd have if aoe
could earn it! ell, Pierre, my boy?'
:" | should think so! But nobody will
earn that reward very soon. Don't you
remember how, a year ago, they
widened the cleft into which the stream
falls, and let down man with a LIANT
ern, and how, before he'd gone thirty
feet, he got bumped against rock and
broke his lantern, and hurt himself so
badly that he had to be hauled up
again?''
"True; it's not very likely Job
Well, come along, and let's get the boat
OUT
Pierre Lebon, the younger of the two,
was 1.-the, olive-cheeked, merry little
fellow, whose slim figure and jaunty
black curls contrasted markedly with
the burly frame and thick sandy hair of
his chum, Jacques Vaudry. The latter
ought rightly to have been called Jack
Fordrey, for he was an English boy,
born in Guernsey; but having been
adopted by a Breton fisherman after his
fathers death, both he and his name had
got considerably ''Frenchifed.
The two boys had to manage by them
selves the boat of which they were joint
owners, for old Simon Lebon, Pierre s
real and Jacks adopted father, was now
too aged and rheumatic to help them in
their work, except by advising them
when to start and where to 90. But his
advice was always good, for in his time
he had been one of the bestfishermen on
the coast, and the lads were usually very
successful.
On this particular day, however, their
good luck seemed to have forsaken them,
for, try as they might, they could catch
nothing worth mentioning. Possibly they
were thinking too little of their work,
and too much of the reward offered by
the Scientific Association; for three thou
sand francs would have been quite u
fortune to them both Moreover the
idea of tracking an underground river
had a spice of romance and adventure
about it which was the very thing to
tempt them.
| The little stream of the Larve had long
been the acknowledged puzzle of the
whole neighborhood. After skirting the
town for some distance, it vanished into
the earth through narrow cleft, and was
seen no more. Where it went to after
that, no one could tell; and, as we have
seen, the first attempt to find out had sue
ceeded so badly that no one felt much in
clined for a second. m
Tired out at length, the unsuccessful
| fishers went home, inwardly resolving to
try whether they might not have better
fortune by night than by day. Pierre,
indeed, when the night came, began to
have some doubts about the wisdom of
the idea, having heard his father say
once and again that it was a very dam
gerous thing to attempt at that season.
But the hardest thing in the world for
boy to do is to draw back from anything
simply because it is dangerous. Rather
than let Jack think him afraid, Pierre
would have gone to sea on hen-coop;
so they stole out of the cottage as noise
lessly as possible, and away they went
over the dim gray waste of sea, half
| lighted by the rising moon. u
The ''take'' of fish was a very good
one this time, and the boys began to
think their night voyage lucky idea;
but they were rejoicing too soon. A little
after midnight the sky began to cloud
over and the sea to rise in way which
showed that there was a storm brewing
They put about at once and made for
shore, but long before they reached it
the storm burst upon themin all itsfury.
In an instant the boat was half full of
water, and it was all they could do to
keep her from laundering outright, as
they flew through the great white roar
ing waves, thumped and banged about
from side to side, and drenched to the
skin at every plunge by the flying gusts
of spray. Pierre grasped the tiller in,
his half-numbed hands, while Jack held
on with all his might to the sheet that
steadied their little three-cornered sail,
at which the wind tugged as if meaning
to tear it away altogether.
The little craft held her own gallant
ly, and the young sailors began to hope
that, after all, they might make the en-
trance of the bay without accident,
but just then an unlucky shift of the
wind tore the sail clean away, and the
boat, falling off at once, was swept
helplessly toward the formidable cliffs
beyond.
"Not much chance for us now" said
Jack, shaking his head. Pierre, my
boy, I'm sorry I've brought you into this
mess; it's all my fault. ... .
Not a bit, old fellow. / ought to
have warned you of what I'd heard my
father say. However, if the worst
comes to the worst, we can swim for
it." ..
However, there seemed to be little
hope, for not foot of standing-room
was to be seen on the rocky sides of the
vast black precipice upon which they