“What’s there?” cried Rick and Chot eagerly.
“That’s what we don’t know,” answered Uncle Tod. “Maybe you can find out—now you’re here—you and Ruddy.”
“But you must have some idea of it,” insisted Mr. Campbell. “What is in the cave?”
“Ghosts!” came the unexpected answer of Sam Rockford. “Ghosts!”
“Nonsense!” declared Uncle Tod with a laugh. “I admit we did hear some spooky noises in there, when Sam and I tried to explore after the water stopped, but it wasn’t them I feared.”
“What was it?” asked Rick.
“The danger of getting lost and toppling down some hole into unknown blackness, Rick. It’s awful dark in there. I guess it must be a tunnel right under the mountain where the river used to come out. Maybe now it’s dipped into some hole or new channel. Anyhow it’s Lost River in earnest.”
“This country was once torn by volcanic action,” was the opinion of Mr. Campbell as he looked around on the rugged peaks and the low valleys. “There may be all sorts of underground and lost water courses here, and your river was probably one of them.”
“Very likely,” agreed Uncle Tod. “Well, I only wish it would find itself again. Without it we can’t do any mining.”
“I’d like to stay and help you,” said Mr. Campbell, “but I must get on to San Francisco.”