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Bradley's face fell. "I thought of that, too," he replied, "but I wanted to believe the
other."
"
Right you are!" I cried. "We must believe the other until we prove it false. We
can't afford to give up heart now, when we need heart most. The branch was
carried down by a river, and we are going to find that river." I smote my open
palm with a clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
"
There!" I cried suddenly. "See that, Bradley?" And I pointed at a spot closer to
shore. "See that, man!" Some flowers and grasses and another leafy branch
floated toward us. We both scanned the water and the coastline. Bradley
evidently discovered something, or at least thought that he had. He called down
for a bucket and a rope, and when they were passed up to him, he lowered the
former into the sea and drew it in filled with water. Of this he took a taste, and
straightening up, looked into my eyes with an expression of elation--as much as
to say "I told you so!"
"This water is warm," he announced, "and fresh!"
I grabbed the bucket and tasted its contents. The water was very warm, and it
was fresh, but there was a most unpleasant taste to it.
"
Did you ever taste water from a stagnant pool full of tadpoles?" Bradley asked.
"
That's it," I exclaimed, "--that's just the taste exactly, though I haven't
experienced it since boyhood; but how can water from a flowing stream, taste
thus, and what the dickens makes it so warm? It must be at least 70 or 80
Fahrenheit, possibly higher."
"
Yes," agreed Bradley, "I should say higher; but where does it come from?"
That is easily discovered now that we have found it," I answered. "It can't come
"
from the ocean; so it must come from the land. All that we have to do is follow it,
and sooner or later we shall come upon its source."
We were already rather close in; but I ordered the U-33's prow turned inshore
and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up the water and tasting it to
assure ourselves that we didn't get outside the fresh-water current. There was a
very light off-shore wind and scarcely any breakers, so that the approach to the
shore was continued without finding bottom; yet though we were already quite
close, we saw no indication of any indention in the coast from which even a tiny
brooklet might issue, and certainly no mouth of a large river such as this must
necessarily be to freshen the ocean even two hundred yards from shore. The tide
was running out, and this, together with the strong flow of the freshwater
current, would have prevented our going against the cliffs even had we not been
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