am standing it
is all straight up and down, but a little way to the left there's a
regular set of holes just as if stones had been left out. Why, it's as
easy as kissing your hand. This must have been one of the old temple
wells, and these holes must have been left like steps for the old people
to come down and clip their water."

"Oh, do take care!" cried Mark.

"Won't I just! I shall be all right. I say, old chap, what a lark!"

"Lark!" cried Mark angrily. "What do you mean by that?"

"Why, it seems to me quite comic to think that we two fellows, who ought
to have known better, should have made such a hullabaloo about nothing
at all. Oh, I say, isn't it lucky that nobody else was here! I
wouldn't--"

"Ah!" gasped Mark, as there was a faint rattling of bits of stone, and
_plish, plash, plosh_, three fragments dropped into the water.

"All right, sonny," said Dean, who had shifted his position and begun to
climb. "I am _en route_; no tree roots here, though, but plenty of
stony holes. Clear the course, for up I come!"

The boy spoke cheerily enough, but his words were accompanied by a faint
panting as if he were making great exertion.

"I say, though, Mark," he went on, "how about your brave British boy?
How about your manly pluck? Pretty pair we have been! All right, old
man; I didn't slip. It was a stone. Ah!" ejaculated the boy, with a
cry of pain.

"Oh, Dean!"

"Don't! It's all right, I tell you. Do you want to frighten me off?"

"No, no, no. But you cried out."

"Enough to make me. I must have twisted my ankle a bit, and it gave me
such a stab just then. All right--better. Up I come. What was I
talking about? Oh, I know. But I say, Mark, don't you feel like a
gallant young Briton, ready to face any danger?"

"No, I don't," cried Mark angrily. "I feel like a miserable coward;"
and he uttered a hysterical sob as he passed his wet hand over his
dripping brow.

"Do you?" said Dean coolly. "Well, that's about what's the matter with
me; only this is rather hard work, and I am too busy to squirm. Brave
British boys! Ha, ha! Well, I suppose every chap feels a bit soft
sometimes. I say, say something."

"Oh, take care, old chap!"

"Well, I am doing that. Say something else."

"I can't!" groaned Mark.

"That's enough," cried Dean excitedly. "I can't see, but I can hear
that my head must be a bit out of this hole, and--Quick! Hand!"

The last two words were ejaculated w