"I'd have pushed him in."
Captain Revel's threat flashed through his son's brain as the young man
stood staring wildly over the agitated waters of the pool, every moment
fancying that he saw some portion of the man's body rise to the surface;
but only for it to prove a patch of the creamy froth churned up by the
flood.
It was plain enough: the man had been sucked in under the falls, and the
force of the falling water was keeping him down. He must have been
beneath the surface for a full minute now--so it seemed to Nic; and, as
he grew more hopeless moment by moment of seeing him rise, the young
man's blood seemed to chill with horror at the thought that he had in
his rage destroyed another's life.
Only a short time back the shut-in pool had been a scene of beauty; now
it was like a black hollow of misery and despair, as the water dashed
down and then swirled and eddied in the hideous whirlpool.
Then it was light again, and a wild feeling of exultation shot through
Nic's breast, for he suddenly caught sight of the man's inert body
approaching him, after gliding right round the basin. It was quite
fifty feet away, and seemed for a few moments as if about to be swept
out of the hollow and down the gully; but the swirl was too strong, and
it continued gliding round the pool, each moment coming nearer.
There was no time for hesitation. Nic knew the danger and the
impossibility of keeping afloat in foaming water like that before him,
churned up as it was with air; but he felt that at all cost he must
plunge in and try to save his adversary before the poor fellow was swept
by him and borne once more beneath the fall.
Stripping off his coat, he waited a few seconds, and then leaped outward
so as to come down feet first, in the hope that he might find bottom and
be able to wade, for he knew that swimming was out of the question.
It was one rush, splash, and hurry, for the water was not breast-deep,
and by a desperate effort he kept up as his feet reached the rugged,
heavily-scoured stones at the bottom. Then the pressure of the water
nearly bore him away, but he managed to keep up, bearing sidewise, and
the next minute had grasped the man's arm and was struggling shorewards,
dragging his adversary towards the rugged bank.
Twice-over he felt that it was impossible; but, as the peril increased,
despair seemed to endow him with superhuman strength, and he kept up the
struggle bravely, ending by drawing the man out on to the ledge of
stones nearly on a level with the water, where he had been at first
standing at the foot of the fall.
"He's dead; he's dead!" panted Nic, as he sank upon his knees, too much
exhausted by his struggle to do more than gaze down at the dripping,
sun-tanned face, though the idea was growing that he must somehow carry
the body up into the sunshine and try to restore consciousness.
Comic things occur sometimes in tragedies, and Nic's heart gave a
tremendous leap, for a peculiar twitching suddenly contracted the face
beside which he knelt, and the man sneezed violently, again and again.
A strangling fit of coughing succeeded, during which he choked and
crowed and grew scarlet, and in his efforts to get his breath he rose
into a sitting position, opened his eyes to stare, and ended by
struggling to his feet and standing panting and gazing fiercely at Nic.
"Are you better?" cried the latter excitedly, and he seized the man by
the arms, as he too rose, and held him fast, in the fear lest he should
fall back into the whirlpool once more.
That was enough! Pete Burge was too hardy a fisher to be easily
drowned. He had recovered his senses, and the rage against the young
fellow who had caused his trouble surged up again, as it seemed to him
that he was being seized and made prisoner, not a word of Nic's speech
being heard above the roar of the water.
"Vish as much mine as his," said the man to himself; and, in nowise
weakened by his immersion, he closed with Nic. There was a short
struggle on the ledge, which was about the worst place that could have
been chosen for such an encounter; and Nic, as he put forth all his
strength against the man's iron muscles, was borne to his left over the
water and to his right with a heavy bang against the rocky side of the
chasm. Then, before he could recover himself, there was a rapid
disengagement and two powerful arms clasped his waist; he was heaved up
in old West-country wrestling fashion, struggling wildly, and, in spite
of his efforts to cling to his adversary, by a mighty effort jerked off.
He fell clear away in the foaming pool, which closed over his head as
he was borne in turn right beneath the tons upon tons of water which
thundered in his ears, while he experienced the sudden change from
sunshine into the dense blackness of night.
"How do you like that?" shouted the man; but it was only a faint
whisper, of which he alone was conscious.
There was a broad grin upon his face, and his big white teeth glistened
in the triumphant smile which lit up his countenance.
"I'll let you zee."
He stood dripping and watching the swirling and foaming water for the
reappearance of Nic.
"Biggest vish I got this year," he said to himself. "Lost my pole, too;
and here! where's my cap, and--?"
There was a sudden change in his aspect, his face becoming full of blank
horror now as he leaned forward, staring over the pool, eyes and mouth
open widely; and then, with a groan, he gasped out:
"Well, I've done it now!"