Evening star., 1936-04-05

lay fiat upon their stomachs they were
knocking the repulsive creatures from
their resting places as the raft car
ried them past.
The end came suddenly. Only few
seconds after they had passed out of
the bat-infested area the roof took a
sharp dip. With bulging, terror
stricken eyes George peered ahead of
him to where, in the clear-cut arc of
the torchlight, the rock and river
seemed to meet. Michael buried his
head in his arms with the conviction
that, whatever he did, there was no
hope of his seeing daylight any more.
Next moment his elbow caught on a
projecting snag of the Shiny ceiling
and he was torn bodily from the
raft. The icy waters of the subterra-
mean river closed over his head and
when he came up gasping. George and
the raft had disappeared!
All about Michael hung sitting.
impenetrable blackness. He struck out
wildly, grabbing frantically at the
rocky side of the cavern in search of
handhold. 1t was damp and slippery
and the current was sweeping him
along at such a pace that even when
he managed to clutch at protrusion
in the surface he was torn from it and
hurried once more along the nightmare
waterway.
For hours, it seemed. he fought and
struggled without success. Then. when
his strength was ebbing from him he
glimpsed a tightening of the pervading
darkness. Where before it had been
solid black it now seemed to have
taken on faint tinge of greyness.
Even as he realized that, he was swept
round a corner and saw pale light en-
tering from an opening at the far end
of the tunnel. With incredible rapidity
he was carried toward it until the
scene framed in the arch of light stood
out clearly. revealing the tops of a
blue range of mountains, in the far
distance.
A thunderous roar filled his ears,
and that sound warned him Of new
peril. The underground river did not
flow on into the valley beyond but
descended from the mountainside in
great cataract Next minute he might
be hurled hundreds of feet down some
uncharted waterfall into the depths
below.
At the entrance the roar increased
to a deafening thunder as he battled
to reach the sides of the cave and
fasten his desperate fingers upon a
jagged rock. At his side the torrent
curved and fell in a foaming cascade
to pitch and break into flying spray
and seething whirlpools far belc v. For
a second his life hung in the alance.
then he got foothold and with a
final effort dragged himself free of the
clutching waters to throw himself ex-
hausted upon rocky ledge.
How long he lay there he did not
know, but when he recovered suffi-
GENTLY to scramble farther from the
danger. the moon was rising, By its
pale silver Light he managed to pick
his way from ledge to ledge down into
the valley to the side of the great pool
into which that terrifying river
crashed increasingly. On the still
waters beyond the raging whirlpool
and white kissing foam portion of the
raft lay becalmed, resting upon a
slight projection in the rivers bank:
but there was no sign Of George.
Michael salvaged the fragments of
the raft and, to his astonishment,
found that a part of the store of pro-
visions which had been carefully
wrapped in waterproof sheets and
lashed onto the raft. was damp but
safe. Pulling them into the shelter of
some rocks, Michael sat down to
solitary and dismal meal. And as he
ate he peered around him, trying to
see in the dim, unfavorable light of the
moon "a light which was momen-