Part 70 (1/2)
”Oh, if it was only light!” groaned Mike
”Yes, we could use the oars or hook to fend her off”
buht at the side to save themselves, conscious now, in the thick darkness, that they were being whirled round and round in soreat whirlpool-like eddy, which dealt with the boat as if it were a cork
”Don't see,” said Vince at last, as the boat swept along, with the water lapping and gurgling about the the feast to come as soon as they were sucked down
”No,” said Mike, ”it doesn't see, Mike,” said Vince in a low deep tone, which did not sound like his own voice
”What?”
”Say our prayers--for the last time”
And in the midst of that intense darkness, black as ebony on either side, while above and below there were still the bright glittering and softened streaks of light, there was an interval of solemn silence
Vince was the first to break that silence, and there was so quite cheerful in his tones now as he said,--
”Shake hands, Mikey: I'ood friends I have often been a regular beast to you”
Mike grasped the extended hands in a fir voice,--
”Not half so bad as I've been to you, Cinder I've got such a hasty temper sometimes”
”Get out!” cried Vince sharply ”There, I' to be drowned, Ladle, but I feel as if we ought to be doing so so cowardly to sit still here They wouldn't like it at home”
”But what can we do? I'h, weround and round in a sort of hole”
”Then we shall be drawn right down somewhere into the earth”
”Not that! I tell you what, it's like one of those great pot-holes in the big passage, only a hundred tirinding it out and carrying us along with it
Look here, we shall be kept on going round and round here, if we don't get sht; and then old Jarks'll come and find us, and we shall be worse off than ever I say, though, don't you think we could do so with the boat-hook?”
”What?”
”Wait till we buain, and then try and hold on”
”If you did the water would come over the stern”
”I don't know Well, look here: I'll try If it does I'll let go directly”
Taking hold of the boat-hook Vince knelt down right forward, thrust the iron-ar it like a lance in rest he waited, but not for long Very soon after the iron point touched against stone, and he was thrown backward, nearly losing the pole, while the boat was sent surging along on one side for a few ain as if she were being sent from side to side, and directly after the keel careat boulder standing in their way There for a brief e forward like a dive, the water caed back to where Mike was kneeling, and then they were rushi+ng onward again more swiftly than ever
For a few moments the pair were too breathless to speak, but Vince recovered fro exciting incidents, and he shouted aloud,--