"What are you going to do, Dickenson?" said Roby, in a voice that did not sound like his own. "I don't know," cried the young officer, with a curious hysterical ring in his voice. "Go down.--See when I get below.--Now then, quick!--Lower away.--Fast!" He began gliding down the sharp slope directly after. "Faster!" shouted Dickenson before he was half-way down; and the sergeant let the rope pass through his hands as quickly as he could with safety let it go, while the lanterns lit up the glistening sides with weirdly-strange, flickering rays, till the rope was nearly all out and Dickenson stopped with a sudden jerk. "Got him?" shouted Roby. "No!" came up in a despairing groan. "I'm on a dripping ledge. Lower me a few feet more till I call to you to stop." The sergeant obeyed, and the call came directly after. For there was a splash and the lights disappeared--not extinguished, but they seemed to glide under a black projection that stood out plainly as a rugged edge against the light, which made the water flash and sparkle as it could be seen gliding swiftly by. "Well?" shouted Roby again. "Hold on with the rope," came up. "The water's close up to the foot of the lanterns. If you let it any lower they will go out." "Right, sir," roared Sergeant James. "Now," shouted Roby; "see him?" "No; the water goes down here in a whirlpool, round and round, and I can feel it sucking at me to drag me below." "Yes, sir; I can feel it along the rope. Look at my arms," growled the sergeant. There was a quick glance directed at the sergeant, and those who were nearest could see that, while his arms jerked and kept giving a little, the rope was playing and quivering in the light. "Can't you see anything?" cried Roby wildly. "Place like a big well ground in the rock," came up in hollow tones; "the water all comes here, and goes down a great sink-hole. Shall I cut myself free and dive?" "No!" came simultaneously, in a hoarse yell, from a dozen throats. "Madness!" shouted Roby. "Look round again; he may be clinging to the rocks somewhere." Dickenson uttered a strange, mocking laugh, so loud and thrilling that it made his hearers shudder. "There's nothing but this hole, smoothed round by the water. I can see all round." "Yah!" roared the sergeant. "Haul!" For suddenly his arms received a heavy jerk which bent him nearly double, and the light which glowed down by the water disappeared; while, but for the rush made to get a grip at the rope by Roby and a couple more men, the sergeant would have gone down. As it was, the sudden snatch made dragged him back; and then, without further order, the men hauled quickly and excitedly at the rope till Dickenson's strangely distorted face appeared in the light. "Hold on!" shouted the sergeant, and stooping down, he got his hands well under his young officer's armpits, made a heave with all his strength, and jerked him out of the horrible pit on to the hard rock.