no
food to carry.

The remainder of the tunnel was as the first part had been--a great,
uneven tube through the mountain, twisting and turning here and there,
sometimes the roof being so high that it did not show in the swinging
lantern-light, and again being low enough, almost, for the boys to
touch.

On all sides was evidence that the flood had been here, as it had been
at the place where the boys took refuge. Now and then they came to
deep pools, which they had to skirt, and, in one case, leap over.

Suddenly, as they were walking along, the lantern which Bud was
carrying went out, leaving them in pitch blackness!

"Hello! What's the idea?" asked Nort.

"Did you do it on purpose?" asked Dick.

"Why, no, of course not!" asserted Bud. "The oil must be gone, though
I filled it before we started, and it ought to have burned longer than
this."

"Whew! This is tough!" bemoaned Nort. "Left in the dark!"

"Not altogether!" exclaimed Bud. "I brought some candles!"

"Great!" voiced Nort. "Light up!"

Which Bud did, placing a short length of candle inside the lantern, by
fastening it, with some grease that hardened, on top of the oil
reservoir of the wick.

"But I can't understand what happened to the lantern," went on Bud,
making an examination by means of a second candle, from the store he
had, luckily, placed in his pocket. "Oh, yes, I can!" he went on.

"What?" asked Dick.

"One of the soldered seams of the lantern oil tank started, and the oil
has leaked out. Guess one of us must have banged it against a stone
when we made the rush. But we'll be all right. A candle in the
lantern is nearly as good as the regular wick."

It was not quite so good, but the boys made the best of it as they
tramped on through the tunnel, hoping to reach the river end without
another flood, or any mishap.

"The water seems to be behaving very nicely," observed Nort, as they
all saw that the stream was well within its rocky channel.

"But what gets me," said Bud, "is where it goes to--when it goes. I
mean where does it disappear to? We haven't come to a single branch
tunnel, or any other passage that could drain off the river water."

"That's right," agreed his cousins.

"But maybe we'll find it further on," suggested Nort.

"We'll soon know, for we must be close to the other end now," observed
Bud. "Our candles are holding out well."

They had come several miles, as they knew by the time consumed. The
w