Desiree sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"Where are we?" she asked.
Harry explained while we beached the raft. Then we broke out our
provisions and partook of them.
"But why do we stop?" asked Desiree.
The words "Because we are not getting anywhere" rose to my lips,
but I kept them back.
"For a rest and some air," I answered.
Desiree exclaimed: "But I want to go on!"
So as soon as we had eaten our fill we loaded the stuff again and
prepared to shove off. By that time I think Harry, too, had
realized the hopelessness of our expedition, for he had lost all
his enthusiasm; but he said nothing, nor did I. We secured
Desiree on her pile of skins and again pushed out into the
current.
The cavern was not large, for we had been under way but a few
minutes when its wall loomed up ahead and the stream again
entered a tunnel, so low and narrow that I hesitated about
entering at all. I consulted Harry.
"Take a chance," he advised. "Why not? As well that as
anything."
We slipped through the entrance.
The current was extremely sluggish, and we barely seemed to move.
Still we went forward.
"If we only had a little speed we could stand it," Harry
grumbled.
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