yacht, with Philip and Lucy and the
parrot and the two dogs, plunged headlong over the edge into the dark
unknown abyss below.

'It's all right, Lu,' said Philip in that moment. 'I'll take care of
you.'

And then there was silence in the cavern--only the rushing sound of the
great waterfall echoed in the rocky arch.

CHAPTER X

THE GREAT SLOTH

You have heard of Indians shooting rapids in their birch-bark canoes?
And perhaps you have yourself sailed a toy boat on a stream, and made a
dam of clay, and waited with more or less patience till the water rose
nearly to the top, and then broken a bit of your dam out and made a
waterfall and let your boat drift over the edge of it. You know how it
goes slowly at first, then hesitates and sweeps on more and more
quickly. Sometimes it upsets; and sometimes it shudders and strains and
trembles and sways to one side and to the other, and at last rights
itself and makes up its mind, and rushes on down the stream, usually to
be entangled in the clump of rushes at the stream's next turn. This is
what happened to that good yacht, the _Lightning Loose_. She shot over
the edge of that dark smooth subterranean waterfall, hung a long
breathless moment between still air and falling water, slid down like a
flash, dashed into the stream below, shuddered, reeled, righted herself
and sped on. You have perhaps been down the water chute at Earl's Court?
It was rather like that.

'It's--it's all right,' said Philip, in a rather shaky whisper. 'She's
going on all right.'

'Yes,' said Lucy, holding his arm very tight; 'yes, I'm sure she's going
on all right.'

'Are we drowned?' said a trembling squeak. 'Oh, Max, are we really
drowned?'

'I don't think so,' Max replied with caution. 'And if we are, my dear,
we cannot undrown ourselves by screams.'

'Far from it,' said the parrot, who had for the moment been rendered
quite speechless by the shock. And you know a parrot is not made
speechless just by any little thing. 'So we may just as well try to
behave,' it said.

The lamps had certainly behaved, and behaved beautifully; through the
wild air of the fall, the wild splash as the _Lightning Loose_ struck
the stream below, the lamps had shone on, seemingly undisturbed.

'An example to us all,' said the parrot.

'Yes, but,' said Lucy, 'what are we to do?'

'When adventures take a turn one is far from expecting, one does what
one can,' said the parrot.

'And what's that?'