the worm-like action
of the sea bores in such caverns as that in which he found himself. The
drive, opened first to the light of the day by the natural convulsion
which had raised the mountain itself above ocean level, probably
extended into the bowels of the cliff. The stream ceased to let itself
out of the crevice; it was then likely that the rising column of water
did not penetrate far into this wonderful hiding-place.

Endowed with a wisdom, which in one placed in less desperate position
would have been madness, John Rex shouted to his pursuers. "The rope!
the rope!" The words, projected against the sides of the enormous
funnel, were pitched high above the blast, and, reduplicated by a
thousand echoes, reached the ears of those above.

"He's alive!" cried McNab, peering into the abyss. "I see him. Look!"

The soldier whipped the end of the bullock-hide lariat round the tree to
which he held, and began to oscillate it, so that the blazing bush might
reach the ledge on which the daring convict sustained himself. The groan
which preceded the fierce belching forth of the torrent was cast up to
them from below.

"God be gude to the puir felly!" said the pious young Scotchman,
catching his breath.

A white spume was visible at the bottom of the gulf, and the groan
changed into a rapidly increasing bellow. John Rex, eyeing the blazing
pendulum, that with longer and longer swing momentarily neared him,
looked up to the black heaven for the last time with a muttered prayer.
The bush--the flame fanned by the motion--flung a crimson glow upon his
frowning features which, as he caught the rope, had a sneer of triumph
on them. "Slack out! slack out!" he cried; and then, drawing the burning
bush towards him, attempted to stamp out the fire with his feet.

The soldier set his body against the tree trunk, and gripped the rope
hard, turning his head away from the fiery pit below him. "Hold tight,
your honour," he muttered to McNab. "She's coming!"

The bellow changed into a roar, the roar into a shriek, and with a gust
of wind and spray, the seething sea leapt up out of the gulf. John Rex,
unable to extinguish the flame, twisted his arm about the rope, and the
instant before the surface of the rising water made a momentary floor to
the mouth of the cavern, he spurned the cliff desperately with his feet,
and flung himself across the chasm. He had already clutched the rock,
and thrust himself forward, when the tremendous volume