amazing self-control. In this agony of suspense she entered the
house, put the baby in a place of safety, woke the lad and the female
domestic, and ran out to give the alarm at the nearest cottage.

Diggory, having returned to the brink of the pool, observed that the
small upper hatches or floats were withdrawn. He found one of these
lying upon the grass, and taking it under one arm, and with his lantern
in his hand, entered at the bottom of the pool as Clym had done. As soon
as he began to be in deep water he flung himself across the hatch; thus
supported he was able to keep afloat as long as he chose, holding
the lantern aloft with his disengaged hand. Propelled by his feet, he
steered round and round the pool, ascending each time by one of the back
streams and descending in the middle of the current.

At first he could see nothing. Then amidst the glistening of the
whirlpools and the white clots of foam he distinguished a woman's bonnet
floating alone. His search was now under the left wall, when something
came to the surface almost close beside him. It was not, as he had
expected, a woman, but a man. The reddleman put the ring of the lantern
between his teeth, seized the floating man by the collar, and, holding
on to the hatch with his remaining arm, struck out into the strongest
race, by which the unconscious man, the hatch, and himself were carried
down the stream. As soon as Venn found his feet dragging over the
pebbles of the shallower part below he secured his footing and waded
towards the brink. There, where the water stood at about the height of
his waist, he flung away the hatch, and attempted to drag forth the man.
This was a matter of great difficulty, and he found as the reason that
the legs of the unfortunate stranger were tightly embraced by the arms
of another man, who had hitherto been entirely beneath the surface.

At this moment his heart bounded to hear footsteps running towards him,
and two men, roused by Thomasin, appeared at the brink above. They ran
to where Venn was, and helped him in lifting out the apparently drowned
persons, separating them, and laying them out upon the grass. Venn
turned the light upon their faces. The one who had been uppermost was
Yeobright; he who had been completely submerged was Wildeve.

"Now we must search the hole again," said Venn. "A woman is in there
somewhere. Get a pole."

One of the men went to the footbridge and tore off the handrail. The
reddleman and