bu'st in your arms!"

"Well, well, so be it," resumed Jack, with a smile, "but the upshot of it
was, that we had to hold another consultation on the point, and I really
believe that, had it not been for a happy thought of mine, we should have
been consulting there yet."

"I wish we had," again interrupted Peterkin with a sigh. "I'm sure,
Ralph, if I had thought that you were coming back again, I would
willingly have awaited your return for months, rather than have endured
the mental agony which I went through! But proceed."

"The thought was this," continued Jack, "that I should tie Peterkin's
hands and feet with cords, and then lash him firmly to a stout pole about
five feet long, in order to render him quite powerless, and keep him
straight and stiff. You should have seen his face of horror, Ralph, when
I suggested this: but he came to see that it was his only chance, and
told me to set about it as fast as I could; 'for,' said he, 'this is no
jokin', Jack, _I_ can tell you, and the sooner it's done the better.' I
soon procured the cordage and a suitable pole, with which I returned to
the cave, and lashed him as stiff and straight as an Egyptian mummy; and,
to say truth, he was no bad representation of what an English mummy would
be, if there were such things, for he was as white as a dead man."

"'Now,' said Peterkin, in a tremulous voice, 'swim with me as near to the
edge of the hole as you can before you dive, then let me take a long
breath, and, as I sha'nt be able to speak after I've taken it, you'll
watch my face, and the moment you see me wink--dive! And oh!' he added,
earnestly, 'pray don't be long!'

"I promised to pay the strictest attention to his wishes, and swam with
him to the outlet of the cave. Here I paused. 'Now then,' said I, 'pull
away at the wind, lad.'"

Peterkin drew in a breath so long that I could not help thinking of the
frog in the fable, that wanted to swell itself as big as the ox. Then I
looked into his face earnestly. Slap went the lid of his right eye; down
went my head, and up went my heels. We shot through the passage like an
arrow, and rose to the surface of the open sea before you could count
twenty!

"Peterkin had taken in such an awful load of wind that, on reaching the
free air, he let it out with a yell loud enough to have been heard a mile
off, and then, the change in his feelings was so sudden and great, that
he did not wait till we landed, but began, tied up