and drop to the floor before I could draw my revolver or put to my mouth
the whistle upon which I depended for assistance and safety? It was hard
to tell, but I determined to cling to my first intention a little
longer, and so stood waiting and counting the minutes, while wondering
if the captain of the police boat was not getting impatient, and whether
I had not more to fear from the anxiety of my friends than the cupidity
of my foes.

You see, I had anticipated communicating with the men in this boat by
certain signals and tokens which had been arranged between us. But the
lack of windows in the room had made all such arrangements futile, so I
knew as little of their actions as they did of my sufferings; all of
which did not tend to add to the cheerfulness of my position.

However, I held out for a half-hour, listening, waiting, and watching in
a darkness which, like that of Egypt, could be felt, and when the
suspense grew intolerable I struck a match and let its blue flame
flicker for a moment over the face of my watch. But the matches soon
gave out and with them my patience, if not my courage, and I determined
to end the suspense by knocking at the door beneath.

This resolution taken, I pulled open the door before me and stepped out.
Though I could see nothing, I remembered the narrow landing at the top
of the stairs, and, stretching out my arms, I felt for the boarding on
either hand, guiding myself by it, and began to descend, when something
rising, as it were, out of the cavernous darkness before me made me halt
and draw back in mingled dread and horror.

But the impression, strong as it was, was only momentary, and, resolved
to be done with the matter, I precipitated myself downward, when
suddenly, at about the middle of the staircase, my feet slipped and I
slid forward, plunging and reaching out with hands whose frenzied grasp
found nothing to cling to, down a steep inclined plane--or what to my
bewildered senses appeared such--till I struck a yielding surface and
passed with one sickening plunge into the icy waters of the river, which
in another moment had closed dark and benumbing above my head.

It was all so rapid I did not think of uttering a cry. But happily for
me the splash I made told the story, and I was rescued before I could
sink a second time.

It was full half an hour before I had sufficiently recovered from the
shock to relate my story. But when once I had made it known, you can
imagine t