nwards and the lights both extinguished, he sank upon his knees
and dropped his face into his hands, no one stirring or speaking in the
few brief moments which followed, but all noticing that the poor
fellow's chest was heaving and that a spasmodic sob escaped his lips.

The silence was broken by the sergeant, who stood rubbing his wet hands
down the sides of his trousers.

"Thought I was gone too," he said huskily.

His words reached Dickenson's understanding, but not their full extent.
His hands dropped to his lap, and he looked up, gazing round in a
strangely bewildered way, his lower lip quivering, and his voice
sounding pathetically apologetic.

"Yes," he said feebly, "I thought I was gone. The water seemed to rise
up round me suddenly to snatch me down. I did all I could--all I could,
Roby, but it seemed to make me as weak as a child. Look at that--look
at that!" he groaned, holding out one arm, which shook as if with the
palsy. Then clasping his hands together he let them drop, and gazed
away before him into the darkness through the arch, and said, as if to
himself, "I did all I could, Drew, old lad--I did all I could."

"Dickenson," whispered Roby, bending over him. "Come, come, pull
yourself together. Be a man."

The poor fellow turned his head sharply, and gazed wildly into the
speaker's eyes.

"Yes, yes," he said, and drawing a deep breath, he eagerly snatched at
the hand held out to him and stood up. "Bit of a shock to a fellow's
nerves. I never felt like that when we went at the Boers. Thank you,
sergeant. Thank you, my lads. I never felt like that."

"No," said the captain quickly. "It would have unmanned any one."

"Did me, sir," said Sergeant James. "And I never felt like that."

"Ha!" sighed Dickenson, giving himself a shake, and beginning to
unbuckle his belt to get rid of the dripping lanterns. "I'm better now.
Ought I to go down again, sir?"

"Go down again, man?" cried Roby. "Good heavens, no! It would be
madness to send any one into that horrible pit.--Here, I had forgotten
Corporal May. Where is he?"

"We laid him down in yonder, sir," said one of the men, indicating the
interior of the cavern with a nod.

"Not dead?"

"No, sir, I don't think so," was the reply as the captain passed through
the archway, followed by the sergeant, who snatched up a lantern; while
Dickenson turned to the great pit, steadied himself by the tree-trunk
which led up, and gazed into the b