s of them; but that
made no difference to my feelings as I swam here and there trying in
vain for something to which to cling; but in the darkest parts as well
as the lightest it was always the same, my hand glided over the stones
and splashed down again into the water.

I was too much confused to think much, and moment by moment I was
growing more helpless. I can remember making a sort of bound to try and
get a hold of the broken platform above my head, but the effect of that
effort was only to send me below the surface. I can recall, too,
thinking that if I let my feet down I might find bottom, but this I
dared not do for fear of what might be below; and so, each moment
growing more feeble, I stared at the opened doorway through which I had
come, at the iron-barred grating through which the water escaped, and
which was the entrance to a tunnel or drain that ran beneath the works.
Then I turned my eyes up at the sunlit opening through which seemed to
come hope surrounding the black tooth-like engine that was hung there
ready to turn and grind me down.

My energy was nearly exhausted, the water was above my lips, and after a
wild glare round at the slimy walls the whispering lapping echoes were
changed for the thunderous roar and confusion felt by one plunged
beneath the surface; and in my blind horror I began beating the water
frantically in my last struggle for life.

Natural instinct seems to have no hesitation in seizing upon the first
help that comes. It was so here. I might have swum to the wheel at
first and clung to it, but I was afraid; but now, after going under once
or twice--I'm sure I don't know which--I came up in close proximity to
the great mass of slimy wood-work, one of my hands touched it, the other
joined it directly, and I clung panting there, blind, confused,
helpless, but able to breathe.

Almost at the same moment, and before I knew what I was holding on by,
there came a sound which sent hope and joy into my heart. It was the
whimpering whine of Piter, who directly after set up a short yapping
kind of bark, and I had a kind of idea that he must be somewhere on the
wood-work inside the wheel.

I did not know that he had fallen in at the same time as I; and though
once or twice I had heard him whining, I did not realise that he was
also in danger; in fact the horrible overwhelming selfishness of the
desire for self-preservation had swept away everything but the thought
of how I was to ge