y the eel in its efforts to escape.

"Try again," I said in a voice as husky as his own. "_You must_."

He struggled feebly, but gave up at once.

"I can't," he groaned. "No strength."

The poor fellow seemed paralysed, save that I could feel his hands
grasping me with a clutch that did not relax for a moment, as I lay
there on my chest, thinking what I must do. It was evident that I
should get no help from him: for the shock of the accident, and his
discovery that he was fast bound and helpless, had completely unnerved
him, and it was plain to me that before long his desperate clutch would
relax, and, when I could hold him no longer, he would sink back and
drown before my eyes.

I looked despairingly round, but only to see deep water, and the bank so
near and yet so far, for it was out of reach.

At last my mind was made up. I would get my knees on the penstock
again, and then by main force drag him out, at all events into a sitting
position, where I could hold him against the post while he recovered
sufficiently to walk to the shore.

I waited a few moments, and then began, but to my horror found that my
feet glided over the slimy, rotten woodwork of the piles beneath the
water, and that I could get no hold anywhere. If I could have had my
hands free for a few moments, it would have been easy enough, but I
dared not let go of him, and, after a brief and weakening struggle, I
gave up, and hung over panting, with for the only result the feeling
that the water was now farther up my legs than before.

I soon got my breath again, and made a fresh effort, but with a worse
result, and this was repeated till a chilly sensation of dread ran
through me, and I felt half stunned at the horror of my position.

Then I recovered a little. "Mercer," I said, "do you feel rested now?"

He did not speak, only looked at me in a curious, half vacant way, and I
shivered, for this was, I felt sure, the first step toward his losing
consciousness and loosening his hold.

"I say," I cried, "don't give up like that. You've got to climb up on
to these boards. I'm going to help you, but I can't unless you help me
too."

There was no reply, only the same fixed stare in his dilated eyes, and
in my horror I looked wildly round at the place I had thought so
beautiful, but which was now all terrible to me, and felt how utterly we
were away from help.

I began again, twining my legs now about the nearest post, and this
enabled m