haps down on the creek."

In view of Mr. Packer's evident anxiety to get out of the cavern as soon
as possible the boys repressed their desire to ask more questions. Pain
and fatigue were forgotten as they entered the water and pushed the
canoes back along the passage. While their guide preceded them, holding
the blazing torch over his head.

Five minutes later they reached the main channel, and turning a sharp
angle found themselves in swiftly running water once more.

"This is where you boys got astray, I reckon," said Mr. Packer. "It's
good you sung out when you did, because I was going right on to the
front end of the cavern. I didn't think about this side pocket at the
time."

"Are we near the rear end?" inquired Ned.

"Purty close," was the reassuring reply. "You'll know when you come to
it."

For half an hour longer the boys pushed on through the narrow winding
passage, finding the stream as rugged and full of difficulties as it had
been earlier in the day. With Mr. Packer's aid, however, they readily
skirted the deep pools and pulled the canoes over the obstructing ledges
and shallows.

Then, somewhat to their consternation, they saw a jagged wall of rock
towering before them. This was undoubtedly the termination of the
cavern, but where was the outlet?

"Hold this over your head and stay right here," said Mr. Packer,
handing Ned the torch. "I'll be with you in a minute."

He waded toward the wall, pulling the canoes after him, until the water
was above his waist. Then, one at a time, he shot the canoes into a
long, low crevice at the base of the cliff, and they vanished with a
grating noise.

He waded back to the boys and led them to a narrow strip of sand on the
right of the passage. Without a word he climbed nimbly up the rocks and
entered a circular hole where the space was so contracted that Ned and
Nugget had to bend almost double and hold their arms in front of them.

They made several sharp turns, slipped down a slide of moist, sticky
clay--and emerged suddenly into the warm, sultry air of the outer world.

A glad cry fell from the boys' lips. A few yards distant lay the surface
of the creek, and in the angle formed by the shore and a rocky hillside
that fell sheer to the water, was a snowy tent, and a campfire behind
it, and two slim figures standing in the flame light. The next instant
the Jolly Rovers were united, and with joy too deep for words they
clasped hands.

Mr. Packer slipped