“Yes, Ned; look, it’s getting brighter.”
“Then what’s the good of our expecting to find water?”
“Because so many springs rise in mountains, and so much water condenses there. Hark! what’s that?”
Ned listened.
“Can’t hear anything, sir.”
“Not that?” cried Jack, whose senses seemed to be sharpened by his needs.
“No, sir, nothing at all.”
Jack made no remark, but pressed on with more spirit than he had before displayed. Then he stopped short in the darkest part they had encountered, a place where the trees encroached so much from the forest on either side that they seemed to be completely shut in.
“Now can you hear it, Ned?” cried the boy triumphantly.
“Yes, sir, I can hear it now—water, and a lot of it falling down the rocks. It must be there just below.”