Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 23 -- Girls, Too!
river, Jack, and see if we can float away on it, maybe through a tunnel in one of the mountains,
to the other side.
We'll go on now, said Ranni. He untied the raft and on they went again, caught by the strong
current.
Can you hear that noise? said Ranni. I think the river makes a fall somewhere ahead -- maybe
a big waterfall. We don t want to be caught in it. I can t get this raft out of the current.
Everyone jumped into the water. Paul was the weakest swimmer and big Ranni took him on his
back. The raft went bobbing off by itself.
Pilescu helped Mike and Jack, but it was a stiff struggle to get to the bank of the swiftly-running
river. They sat there, exhausted, hoping that no robber would come by, for they had no
strength to resist anyone!
They walked on beside the river, over rough ground. The noise became louder and louder.
Then they suddenly saw what happened to the mountain river!
They rounded a big rock and came to the place where fine flew. The great silver river rushed
by them -- and then disappeared completely!
So that s what the robber meant when he shouted that we should soon be in the middle of the
earth, said Jack. That water must go deep down into enormous holes and crevices among the
rocks. I suppose it goes right under the surrounding mountains and comes out somewhere
else as a river again. How amazing!
The waterfall entrance idea would be re-used in Blyton's
The Adventurous Four Again (1947), now back in
England. Tom leaves his camera behind in the recessed
cave and clambers through the waterfall hole when the
current lessens. He finds a hidden cave full of boxes and
inhabited by two men. When discovered, he escapes by
dropping into the fast-flowing underground river that
sweeps him out to sea, where he is cast onto a rock
above where the river and sea met and "fought their
eternal battle."
In The Five Go Off in a Caravan (1948), we're never sure
where they are, but there's the obligatory secret passage
and an enormous cavern in which wading is required.
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