ed and foamed furiously.

But the men knew their work. One pulled hard, the other backed water,
and by their united efforts the boat was forced into an eddy close under
the cliff; and to their amazement the boys found that they were being
carried in the opposite direction to that in which the main body of the
water was racing along.

"You vill escape and climb ze cliff? No, _mes enfans_," said the
captain: "you cannot climb. You vill take my boat to go avay? Aha! you
sink so? No, it is not for you to manage ze boat. She vill capsize
herself if you try."

Vince said nothing, but eagerly looked around; but it was everywhere the
same--the roaring waters tearing wildly along in the crater-like cove,
and from their seat in the boat no entrance, no exit, was visible.

"Now I take you bose and drop you ovaire-board: you sink, you go home?"
said the captain, showing his teeth. "Yaas, you go home, but not to see
ze _bon papa_, ze _belle maman_. It is not possible. Von of my men say
von day he have sick of me, and he vill go. He shump ovaire-board to
svim, and he svim vis his arm and leg von, two, twenty stroke, and zen
he trow _les mains_ out of ze vater, and he cry for ze boat; but zere
vas no boat, and he turn round upon himself two time, and go down a hole
in ze vater. I stand and look at him, but he came up again nevaire. He
vas a good man--_bon matelot_--but he go. You like to shump in and
svim? _Eh bien_, you shake ze hand, shump in. _Au revoir_, but ve
shall meet again nevaire. You go? _Non? Eh bien_! I make you ze
offaire."

The boys felt that it was all true, and marvelled where they were going,
for the eddy was taking them along by the mighty rocks, which were
overhanging them again; and, as far as they could make out, the cliffs
under which they passed and the ridge away facing the cavern mouth,
which they had imagined to be an island, were all one.

The captain seemed to be paying little heed to them, sitting with his
eyes half-closed; but he was watching them all the time closely, and
noted their astonishment as the men suddenly began to tug at their oars
with all their might, apparently to avoid a rock, round one side of
which the water was rushing with tremendous force, just as if the eddy
stream along which they had been riding suddenly curved round it. The
men were making for the other end, and as they drew nearer the water
roared and splashed up, and it appeared to both that they must