Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 19 -- The Stratemeyer Boys Club Serials
From Bonehill's Four Boy Hunters, or The Outing of the Gun Club
(1906),
"Let us try to find some other way out."
They walked back and forth in the cave and then, by common
consent, sat down on some flat rocks to consider the situation.
Nobody felt like joking, for all felt the seriousness of the situation.
"That water must come to the surface somewhere," said Snap. "But it
may be a good distance from here."
As they were wet to the knees, one after another got down in the
stream and examined the rocks. Some thought they saw daylight
under the water beyond the rocks, but nobody was sure.
From Bonehill's preface to When Santiago Fell, The Adventures
of Two Chums (1899), the last of the 9-volume Flag and Frontier
series,
My object in writing this story was to present to American lads a
true picture of life in the Cuba of today, and to show what a
fierce struggle was waged by the Cubans against the ironhanded
mastery of Spain previous to the time that our own
glorious United States stepped in and gave to Cuba the
precious boon of liberty..
Describing a fictional Cuban underground river,
Putting my hand up, I learned that the rocky ceiling was not
over two feet above the surface of the water, and the distance
between the two was gradually but surely growing less!
I was horrified over the discovery that I had made. Here I was,
in absolute darkness, hemmed in by water and rocky walls, and
drifting rapidly I knew not whither.
In my terror I cried aloud, but only echo answered me -- a peculiar echo which made me shiver
from head to foot.
On and on, and still on, was I dashed by the underground current, which seemed to grow more
powerful as I advanced, until my head grazed repeatedly against the wall over me, and I felt
like giving myself up for lost. Oh, how bitterly I regretted the curiosity which had led me to
explore the cavern in which chance had so strangely placed me!
But now what was this -- a light? At first I could scarcely believe the evidence of my senses.
There was a bright flash -- then total blackness again.
What could it mean? Perhaps I was dreaming -- or the fearful situation had turned my brain.
Then came a second flash and a revelation.
It was the lightning from without, shining through some opening into the waters under and
around me! I was nearing the outer world. Oh, for a breath of fresh air again!
Even as the thought crossed my mind, my head struck the rocky ceiling again, and under I
went, to find that I could not come up, the water now rising to the very rocks. But a stronger
light could be seen, and I dove along, came up once, twice -- and then emerged into the open
air with a splutter and a gasp, on the verge of exhaustion.
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