n studied--at least in
Albion--to the extent which now prevails in England. The neck of land
was not equal to the pressure brought to bear on it, and while the
captain and his friend were looking at it, there appeared symptoms which
caused the former some anxiety.

At that moment Konar the hunter came up. Although attached to the
settlement as hunter, he had agreed to take his turn with the diggers,
for the water accumulated in the lake so fast that the work had to be
done rapidly, and every available man at the place was pressed into the
service. The overseer himself, even, lent a hand occasionally.

"I don't like the look of the lower part of that neck," he remarked to
the hunter.

Konar was a man of few words. By way of reply he laid aside his bow and
descended the bank to examine the weak point. He was still engaged in
the investigation and bending over a moist spot, when the entire mass of
earth gave way and the waters burst into the drain with a gush and a
roar quite indescribable. Konar was swept away instantly as if he had
been a feather. Arkal and Beniah sprang down the bank to his
assistance, and were themselves nearly swept into the flood which had
swallowed up the hunter, but Konar was not quite gone. Another moment
and his legs appeared above the flood, then his head turned up, and then
the raging waters tossed him as if contemptuously on a projecting spit
of bank, where he lay half in and half out of the torrent.

In a moment both Arkal and the Hebrew were at the spot, seized the
hunter by an arm, the neck of his coat, and the hair of his head, and
drew him out of danger; but no sign of life did the poor man exhibit as
he lay there on the grass.

Meanwhile the energetic labourers at the lower end of the drain heard
the turmoil and stood motionless with surprise, but were unable to see
what caused it, owing to a thick bush which intervened. Another moment
and they stood aghast, for, round the corner of the only bend in the
drain, there appeared a raging head of foam, with mud, grass, sticks,
stones, and rubbish on its crest, bearing down on them like a
race-horse.

With a yell that was as fully united as their method of work, the men
scrambled out of the drain and rushed up the bank, exhibiting a unity of
purpose that must have gladdened the heart of Captain Arkal. And they
were not a moment too soon, for the last man was caught by the flood,
and would have been swept away but for the promp