Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

William Murray Graydon
Chapter 20 -- More Boys Club Serials
With the assistance of the newly-invented Dictaphone, William
Murray Graydon wrote more than 100 Sexton Blake Stories
and an equal number for the Sexton Blake Library, some
which were subsequently used as the basis for Nick Carter
stories and others rewritten for the Gordon Keith series.
Graydon's pseudonyms include Alfred Armitage, William
Murray and Tom Olliver. Adding to the bibliographic
dimensionality would be his publishers' propensity to rerelease
stories under altered titles.
Bluntly put, Graydon sold his works over and over to Boys
Clubs having short recall.
Lost Cave (1893) tells of a harrowing boat trip along an underground river, a theme which repeats
in Graydon's works. The discovery of Pennsylvania's Lost River Caverns in 1883 ties into
Graydon's impressionable years; he would have been 19 at the time of the discovery.
We should pause a moment for geographic clarification. There are numerous American rivers
named "Lost River." In our journey, we'll encounter Lost Rivers in,
Pennsylvania This chapter, Boys Club Serials
Indiana
Kentucky
Chapter 39, Karstology,
Chapter 47, Wrecks of Ancient Life, and
Chapter 90, Why Do We Believe What We Believe?
Chapter 50, Then, Madam, You Should Go and See
the Great Cave in Kentucky
Wisconsin Chapter 54, Three Tales of Two St. Pauls
Idaho Chapter 86, the Rio San Buenaventura
New Hampshire
Chapter 83, Professor Denton's New England
Underground River
Here's a taste of Graydon's Pennsylvania underground action.
Twenty feet below, and separated from them by a precipitous slope of rock, was a beach of
shining sand a 19 dozen yards wide. It terminated in a pool of black water that was constantly
heaving in turbulent eddies, and washed, on the opposite side, the steep rocky wall of the
cavern.
This subterranean stream -- for such it was -- cut directly across the corridor that the boys had
been following. It issued through a gloomy hole, and where it disappeared by a similar aperture
was a great mass of drift -- logs, fence rails and brush.
This blockade formed the eddying pool, and the escaping water pouring through the interstices
made the deafening roar that the boys heard.
"There are just two courses open to us," said Roger. "We can turn back and explore the other
corridor, or we can drag the boat over the drift and trust ourselves to the channel. What do you
say?"
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