ater, which was so deep he could not touch the
bottom. "Jane! Jane!" he cried, but no sound came from the still water,
till at last a faint bubbling sound was heard, and a hand grasped him.
Catching her round the waist, he raised her head above the water, when
the half-drowned girl began to revive; but too much exhausted to assist
herself in the least. The chief swam with her towards the place where
they had fallen, hoping to find a projecting rock to support her on,
but he was disappointed, although he was enabled to obtain footing in
three feet water, where he stood holding her in his brawny arms.

"All safe," he cried, the moment he had obtained footing. "But how we
are to get up there is a different affair."

"Keep up your courage," cried the trapper; "we must have a light. I
have a flint, knife, and punk-wood; so far all is well, but what are we
to burn?"

"There is wood in here I know," said Sidney, "for I have stumbled over
it a number of times?"

"Have a care how you hunt round for it, or you will go down after Jane
and the chief," said Edward.

"Here is wood, plenty of it," said Sidney, bringing forward a handful
of sticks. In the meanwhile the trapper had struck fire, and was
blowing the punk into a blaze, and taking some of the sticks in his
hand to communicate with the burning punk, found them in a crumbling
condition but perfectly dry, and they quickly ignited. A cheerful blaze
was in a few minutes lighting up the cavern; they then cautiously
approached the place where Whirlwind and Jane had fallen, who were
patiently awaiting light and assistance from above. Holding some
blazing sticks over the edge they discovered the chief and Jane ten
feet below them, with water smooth and placid, full thirty feet beyond,
and extending along the cavern as far as the eye could reach. Evidently
they had been making their way on its verge quite a distance, and the
least deviation on that side would have plunged them all into its
waters. The rock was rough and jagged with many small fissures in which
they could get a foothold, and by the assistance of Sidney, who
descended a few feet, Jane was soon lifted up to the floor of the
cavern, where, with the agility of a deer, the chief followed her.
Saturated with water, without a single extra garment, they were in a
very uncomfortable condition, yet they laughed heartily over their
mishaps; for, indeed, they thought anything preferable to being in the
power of cannibals. P