St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-04-03
TRACKING A BURIED RIVER.

The Adventure of Two Sailor Boys.
The sum of 5000 francs ($60O) will bt
paid by the Scientific Association of MorlaiS
to any one who shall succeed in tracing the
course of the Larve, and ascertainine
whether it has any underground communi-
cation with the sea.
FELIX DELARoCHE, President.
Snch 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:
"What q holiday we'd have il trt
could earn it! Ell, Pierre, my boE?"
{" should think SO! But nobody will
earn that reward very soon. Don't you
remember how, year ago, they
widened thecleft into which the stream
falls, and let down a man with a Ian.
tern, and how, before he'd gone thirty
feet, he got bumped against rock and
broke his lantern, and hurt himself SC
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 QUIZ
Pierre Lebon, the younger of the two,
was q 1.-the, olive checked, 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 boys had to manage by them
selves the boat of which they were joint
owners, for old Simon Lebon, Pierre $
real and jack adopted father, was now
too aged and rheumatic to help them in
their work, except by advising them
when to start and where to go. But his
advice was always good, for in his time
he had been one of the best fishermen
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. Posi-
bly, they were thinking too little of their
work and too much of the reward Of
fered by the Scientific Association; for
three thousand francs would have been
quite fortune to them both. More
over, the idea of tracking an under
ground river had spice of romance and
adventure about it which was the very
thing to tempt them.
The little stream of the Larye had
long been the acknowledged puzzle Of
the whole neighborhood. After skirt
ing the town for some distance, it van
ished 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 succeeded so badly that
nobody felt much inclined for second.
Tired out at length the unsuccessful
fishers went home, lnwardIy 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 very dangerous
thing to attempt at that season. But
the hardest thing in the world for boy
to do is to draw back from any thing
simply because it is dangerous. Rather
than let Jack think him afraid, Pierre
would have gone to sea on a 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.
The "take'' of fish was very good
one this time, and the boys began to
think their night voyage a lucky idea;
but they were rejoicing too soon. A lit
tie after midnight the sky began to
cloud over and the sea rise in way
" hich showed that there was a storm
brewing. They put about at once, and
made for the shore, but long before they
reached it the storm burst upon them
in all its fury.
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
ring 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 "sheetn
that steadied their little three cornered
sail, at which the wind tugged as if
to tear it away altogether.
The little craft held her own gallantly,
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
coward the formidable cliffs beyond.
'',Not much chance for us now,"
said Jack, shaking his head. "Pierre,
ny boy, I'm sorry I've brought you
INTO this mess; it's all my fault
"Not a bit, old fellow. [ ought to
nave warned you of what I'd heard my
ather say. However, if the worst
comes to the worst, we can swim for
t. -
However, there seemed to be little
lope, for not foot of, standing room
vas to be seen on the rocky sides of the
'ast black precipice upon which they
we're driving headlong. All at once
lack shouted: