The cursing man was victorious, and now he stood alone on
the shelf, roaring maledictions. Then there was the sound of a plunge,
and Lermontoff, standing there, helpless and shivering, heard the
prisoner swim round and round his cell like a furious animal,
muttering and swearing.
"Don't exhaust yourself like that," shouted Lermontoff. "If you want
to live, cling to the hole at either of the two upper corners. The
water can't rise above you then, and you can breathe till it
subsides."
The other either did not hear, or did not heed, but tore round and
round in his confined tank, thrashing the water like a dying whale.
"Poor devil," moaned Jack. "What's the use of telling him what to do.
He is doomed in any case. The other two are now better off."
A moment later the water began to dribble through the upper aperture
into Jack's cell, increasing and increasing until there was the roar
of a waterfall, and he felt the cold splashing drops spurt against
him. Beyond this there was silence. It was perhaps ten minutes after
that the lever was pulled, and the water belched forth from the lower
tunnel like a mill race broken loose, temporarily flooding the floor
so that Jack was compelled to stand on the bench.
He sunk down shivering on the stone shelf, laid his arms on the stone
pillow, and buried his face in them.
"My God, my God!" he groaned.
CHAPTER XVII
A FELLOW SCIENTIST
IN this position Jack slept off and on, or rather, dozed into a kind
of semi-stupor, from which he awoke with a start now and then, as he
thought be heard again the mingled cries of devotion and malediction.
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