ters had covered it; there was no raft--the pole had been
loosened by the water and the raft had gone, floated away, to be driven
by the stream to the tunnel, and then swim lightly away to leave us to a
horrible death--a self-sought death; and as I thought of what I had done
in my insensate greed for gold I could have groaned aloud.

But no, it was no insensate greed, I told myself--it was for Lilla's
sake--and my eyes rilled with tears as I thought that I should never see
her more, and that Garcia--

That name sent a thrill of energy through my weary frame, and calling
upon speechless Tom, I told him to light a piece more oakum; and he did
so, to reveal plainly the raft floating about right at the end of the
great vault, and apparently nearing the arch of exit. What were we to
do?

There was but one answer. Dash into that horrible black lake and swim
to the raft, or else stay and die.

It was dreadful, to plunge into those mysteriously disturbed waters,
containing far below who could tell what hideous monsters?--to swim, or
try to swim, where the strange eddies and whirlpools might draw the
struggling wretch down! To swim, too, in profound darkness; for I felt
that if the attempt were made it would be made together.

The thoughts in my breast must have been the same as those in poor
Tom's; for, looking at the faintly-discerned raft and then up at me, he
said with a groan: "Mas'r Harry, I daren't!"

"Tom," I said, "I dare not!"

"But tell me to try it, Mas'r Harry," he cried--"order me to swim off to
it, and I'll try. I shall be sucked down like a cork in a sink-hole,
but tell me to do it--order me and make me, and I'll try; but I daren't
go without I was made."

"Light another piece of oakum, Tom," I said hoarsely. "Perhaps the
water on the sand is shallow and we might walk along to the other end,
and then try to swim together: it would not be half so far. But stay--
hold my hand while I step down and try."

We crept down to where the sand had been bare when we left it, though
loose and yielding; and, sticking the short piece of candle in a
crevice, Tom seized my hand firmly and I stepped down into the water,
but only to cry to Tom to draw me forth, for the sand was quick now and
watery, and more dangerous to him who ventured upon it than the lake
itself.

It was not without a sharp struggle that I once more stood beside Tom
upon the ledge of rock, when without a word he drew out the oakum and
prepar