“I can do it! I can do it!” Charley replied, working the paddle more vigorously than ever. Meanwhile the water was boiling furiously--more than it had done at any time yet. Dick was terribly alarmed. He was standing now on a point of rocks directly over the boiling pot and all at once, to his horror, he saw the boat half double up and go shooting into the middle of this miniature maelstrom. “I’m a goner!” yelled Charley, and he tumbled out of the boat. But he was too late to save himself. Like a flash the boat disappeared beneath the water. Charley made a noble effort to save himself, but the suction was too much for him. “Oh, Dick!” he cried suddenly, and then threw up his hands and was gone. Dick hesitated just one instant--no more. Without even stopping to throw off his coat he took a header into the boiling pot, disappearing like a flash. It seemed a piece of mad folly. How could he hope to rescue Charley under such circumstances as these? But Dick never gave that a thought. He would have jumped in just the same if he had known that he was jumping to his death. Down he went--down--down--drawn deeper every second by that terrible pull. “I’m a goner,” he thought “I can’t help myself,” and his heart began to fail him as he was still drawn on and on, deeper into the boiling pot. CHAPTER XIII. THE WONDERFUL CAVERN. Holding his breath and still being dragged downward by that terrible suction, Dick Darrell gave himself up for lost. His only hope was that his previous experience under the lake might be repeated. And in a different way this is just what happened. Dick was brought up with a round turn before he knew it. Suddenly the suction ceased and he went shooting forward; the next he knew his head was out of water and he was swimming for all he was worth down a swiftly flowing stream. He was now in a mighty cavern and it was comparatively light. Above him was the roof with immense stalactites hanging down like great icicles; the wall on his left was covered with the same glittering white formation; on the right the cave extended off into the distance further than the eye could reach; on ahead there was no roof, the cavern being open to the sky for a space of several hundred feet, which admitted light and air and enabled Dick to take in his surroundings. It was a truly wonderful place. Doubtless the opening was at some inaccessible point far up on the top of the mountain. It was at least a hundred feet up from the floor of the cavern and nothing without wings could hope to reach it. The stream rushed on with tremendous rapidity and Dick, feeling that he might be swept into a worse place, made all possible haste to get ashore, something not to be accomplished without difficulty, but at last he managed it, and, wet to the skin and gasping for breath, he sank down upon the sand and lay there, scarcely caring whether he lived or died. This state of things lasted only for a few moments, however.