Then I stuck the paddle in the mud and hung my hat on the end of it. Just then I heard a voice. It sounded strained and not like Bert's, as if it couldn't speak on account of pain. "Don't--jump--stay--" I waited a few seconds and then called, "If _you're_ hurt, I'm coming anyway." "Don't--jump," he kind of groaned; "I'm all right. Just a strain. Don't jump." I sat on the edge waiting. I was just counting the seconds. I was afraid he'd never speak again. Then he said, "All right, kiddo--just strained my wrist." "Are you _sure_?" I called down; "dip it in the water; slap some mud on it. Is he dead?" I knew now that he must be all right, because I heard him move. For about half a minute he didn't answer. Then he called up: "He's alive, but he isn't conscious." "How about _you_?" I said. "Alive and conscious," he said; "don't worry." Then for about a minute he didn't speak. "Do you want the paddle?" I called. "Nope--chuck it," he said. "This is a place of mystery. Know where the water went? There's a passageway down here; it's big enough to crawl through. Ouch!" "Tell me the truth," I said, "you're hurt." "I'm in a very critical condition from a swollen wrist," he said; "shut up, will you! There's a secret passageway or something or other down here. Where do you suppose it goes?" "Hanged if _I_ know," I said; "what about Skinny?" "He's breathing, that's all _I_ know," he said. For a couple of minutes I sat on the edge thinking and I could hear him down there. I didn't know what he was doing. Then I called, "You know Rebel's Cave, don't you? Above the shore south of Nick's Cove--near the outlet? Maybe it comes out there--the passage, I mean." "What makes you think so?" he called. "I don't say I think so," I said; "only there's a kind of a passageway that goes into the hills there. It starts in the cave. None of us ever followed it, because it's so dark and wet. A fellow found an old musket stock there once." "What do you say?" he called; "there's no time to lose, that's sure. Shall I try it? It would take an hour to flood this pesky old hole, even if I could stop up the passage." Then all of a sudden I knew why he had told me to be ready with the paddle. It was so I could open a little trench through the muddy land and start the water flowing into the pit. That way he'd get to the top with Skinny. "But you can't stop up the passageway," I said. "The water flowed through it and went out somewhere--maybe through the cave and back into the lake. If it's big enough you could do the same. Both of us--" "Stay where you are," he shouted, "and don't be a fool. Do you suppose I want to carry two fellows through there? One's enough. By heck, I'm going to try it--it's the only thing to do." "Suppose it shouldn't bring you out anywhere?" I said. "Suppose it should," he fired back at me.