CHAPTER THREE.
A GAME OF TIT FOR TAT.
"I'd have pushed him in."
Captain Revel's threat flashed through his son's brain as the young manstood staring wildly over the agitated waters of the pool, every momentfancying 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 theflood.
It was plain enough: the man had been sucked in under the falls, and theforce of the falling water was keeping him down. He must have beenbeneath the surface for a full minute now--so it seemed to Nic; and, ashe grew more hopeless moment by moment of seeing him rise, the youngman's blood seemed to chill with horror at the thought that he had inhis rage destroyed another's life.
Only a short time back the shut-in pool had been a scene of beauty; nowit was like a black hollow of misery and despair, as the water dasheddown and then swirled and eddied in the hideous whirlpool.
Then it was light again, and a wild feeling of exultation shot throughNic's breast, for he suddenly caught sight of the man's inert bodyapproaching him, after gliding right round the basin. It was quitefifty feet away, and seemed for a few moments as if about to be sweptout of the hollow and down the gully; but the swirl was too strong, andit continued gliding round the pool, each moment coming nearer.
There was no time for hesitation. Nic knew the danger and theimpossibility 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 mustplunge in and try to save his adversary before the poor fellow was sweptby him and borne once more beneath the fall.
Stripping off his coat, he waited a few seconds, and then leaped outwardso as to come down feet first, in the hope that he might find bottom andbe 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 waternearly bore him away, but he managed to keep up, bearing sidewise, andthe 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 thestruggle bravely, ending by drawing the man out on to the ledge ofstones nearly on a level with the water, where he had been at firststanding at the foot of the fall.
"He's dead; he's dead!" panted Nic, as he sank upon his knees, too muchexhausted by his struggle to do more than gaze down at the dripping,sun-tanned face, though the idea was growing that he must somehow carrythe body up into the sunshine and try to restore consciousness.
Comic things occur sometimes in tragedies, and Nic's heart gave atremendous leap, for a peculiar twitching suddenly contracted the facebeside which he knelt, and the man sneezed violently, again and again.A strangling fit of coughing succeeded, during which he choked andcrowed and grew scarlet, and in his efforts to get his breath he roseinto a sitting position, opened his eyes to stare, and ended bystruggling to his feet and standing panting and gazing fiercely at Nic.
"Are you better?" cried the latter excitedly, and he seized the man bythe arms, as he too rose, and held him fast, in the fear lest he shouldfall back into the whirlpool once more.
That was enough! Pete Burge was too hardy a fisher to be easilydrowned. He had recovered his senses, and the rage against the youngfellow who had caused his trouble surged up again, as it seemed to himthat he was being seized and made prisoner, not a word of Nic's speechbeing heard above the roar of the water.
"Vish as much mine as his," said the man to himself; and, in nowiseweakened by his immersion, he closed with Nic. There was a shortstruggle on the ledge, which was about the worst place that could havebeen chosen for such an encounter; and Nic, as he put forth all hisstrength against the man's iron muscles, was borne to his left over thewater and to his right with a heavy bang against the rocky side of thechasm. Then, before he could recover himself, there was a rapiddisengagement and two powerful arms clasped his waist; he was heaved upin old West-country wrestling fashion, struggling wildly, and, in spiteof 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 ashe was borne in turn right beneath the tons upon tons of water whichthundered in his ears, while he experienced the sudden change fromsunshine into the dense blackness of night.
"How do you like that?" shouted the man; but it was only a faintwhisper, of which he alone was conscious.
There was a broad grin upon his face, and his big white teeth glistenedin the triumphant smile which lit up his countenance.
"I'll let you zee."
He stood dripping and watching the swirling and foaming water for thereappearance 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 blankhorror now as he leaned forward, staring over the pool, eyes and mouthopen widely; and then, with a groan, he gasped out:
"Well, I've done it now!"