“We’re going down and down,” said Jack. “The river must be running right through the mountain in a downward direction, and I suppose will come out at the other side.”
“The other side! Do you mean where the Secret Forest is?” cried Mike.
Jack nodded his head and his eyes gleamed eagerly in the light of Mike’s torch. “Yes! If the river does come out into the open, and I suppose it must at last, we shall be somewhere on the mountain-side overlooking the Secret Forest itself. So, you see, there is a way of getting there! And the robbers know it. I shouldn’t be surprised if that really was smoke I saw that day we flew over it in the aeroplane.”
The boys felt even more excited, if that was possible! They sat on the weird raft-boat and thought about their night’s adventure. It was stranger than any they had ever had. This mountain river seemed never-ending. How long did it go and on and on?
After about two hours a startling thing happened. Jack saw a light, bright and golden, far ahead of them. “Look!” he said. “What’s that?”
They floated rapidly nearer and nearer to the gleam, and soon they saw what it was. It was daylight, sunlight, bright and golden. They were soon coming out into the open air!
“We’ll be able to get off the raft and stretch our legs a bit!” said Jack, thankfully, for they were all beginning to feel very cramped indeed. But Jack was wrong. There was no getting off that raft yet!
It suddenly shot out into the open air, and the boys blinked their eyes, dazzled by the sudden bright sunshine. When they could see properly, they saw that they were indeed on the other side of the steep Killimooin Mountains!
Below them, not very far away, was the Secret Forest! The mountain river, after having flowed for miles through the mountain tunnels, was now flowing down the slopes of the hill, taking the raft with it. It spread out into a wide river, and the raft sailed along in the middle, where the current was swift and strong. There appeared to be no dangerous waterfall to navigate! That was very fortunate, Jack thought.
“Do you suppose this river goes right down to the Secret Forest?” said Mike, trying to see where it flowed, far ahead of them. He caught glimpses of silver here and there, near the forest. It really did look as if the river flowed to it!