ty was chained save that of hearing as
he listened, waiting for some fresh disturbance of the depths below by
Dean rising to the surface to begin struggling for life.

And all this time he could not cry out for help. It seemed to him as if
he could not have breathed for the icy hand that was clutching him at
the throat.

There were moments when he could not even think, when it seemed to be
unreal, a nightmare-like dream of suffering when he had been called upon
to bear the horror of knowing that his cousin had died a horrible death,
while he could not even feel that it was his duty to climb down
somewhere into the darkness where he might be able to extend to the poor
fellow a saving hand as he rose.

But all was still; the last faint whisperings of the water against the
rocky sides had died out. Not a sound arose. He could not even hear
his own breath. And then all at once he uttered a gasp as he expired
the breath he had held, and _thud, thud, thud, thud_, he felt his heart
leap the pulsations keeping on now at a tremendous rate as they beat
against his quivering breast.

He might have been dead during the moments that had passed. Now he was
wildly alive, for, as if by the magic touch of a magician's wand, he had
been brought back to himself, as in a slow, awestricken whisper Dean
uttered the words, from somewhere apparently close below, "Mark! Did
you hear that?"

Once more the lad could not reply, and Dean's voice rose again, loudly
and wildly agitated now.

"Mark! Are you there? Did you hear that?"

"Yes, yes," gasped the boy. "Oh, Dean, old fellow, I thought it was you
that had gone down!"

"No; but wasn't it an escape? I began to climb, and a big stone upon
which I had trusted myself went down with that horrible splash; but I
kept hold of the side, and I am all right yet. But oh, how you
frightened me! I began to think, the same as you did, that it was you
who had fallen, in spite of knowing that it was the stone. But being
here in the darkness makes one so nervous."

"Yes," panted Mark, who was pressing his hands to his breast.

"But I say, what's the matter with you? Your voice sounds so queer!"

"Does it? I shall be better directly. Fancying you had fallen set my
heart off racing--a sort of palpitation; but it's calming down now. Can
you hold on? Are you safe?"

"Well, I don't feel so bad. That horrible frightened feeling has gone
off, and I think I can hold on or begin to clim