o. Darting
into her chamber, she seized the end of the rope connected with the tank
and pulled it violently. March saw the rock above the fireplace drop!
A clear, sparkling cataract sprang as if by magic from the wall! Next
instant there was black darkness and yells, steam, shrieks, and howls--a
hissing, hurling hubbub, such as no man can possibly conceive of unless
he has seen and heard it! We will not, therefore, even attempt a
description.

The Indians rushed _en masse_ to the doorway. Death in the jaws of the
Wild Man of the West was infinitely preferable to being parboiled and
suffocated; but the Wild Man had judiciously made way for them. They
gained the outer cave, and sprang down the pathway. Dick plied the
handle of the shrieking-machine with the secondary object in view of
relieving his own feelings! The din was indescribable! If those
Indians are not lunatics at this moment they must be dead, for there
could be no alternative in the circumstances. Certain it is they
vanished like smoke, and they have never been heard of since--from that
day to this!

Really, dear reader, if it were not that we are recounting the doings of
a Wild Man--a notoriously eccentric creature--we would feel it necessary
to impress upon you that such scenes as we have been describing are not
characteristic of life in the Rocky Mountains; nay, more, we question
whether such scenes as these have ever been witnessed or enacted in
those regions at any time, with the exception, of course, of the present
occasion. But it must be carefully borne in mind that we are recounting
the deeds of a "Wild Man," and, although the aspect of outward things--
the general tone and current of manners and customs and natural
phenomena--may remain exactly the same as heretofore, and be faithfully
described without exaggeration (as we maintain they are), yet the acts,
devices, and vagaries of such a creature as a Wild Man may, indeed must
necessarily, be altogether eccentric and unparalleled. We therefore
pause here to express a hope that, whatever credit you may be able to
give to the reported deeds of this hero, you will not withhold your
belief in the fidelity of the other portions of this narrative.

No sooner, then, were those unwelcome visitors ejected than Dick
returned to the scene of devastation and shouted, "Hullo! Mary!"

"Safe, all safe," she replied, as, with the assistance of March Marston,
she pushed the plank across the chasm, a