Page 511 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

tortured water. Suddenly the bottom of this abyss seemed
to advance to meet him; or, rather, the black throat of the
chasm belched a volume of leaping, curling water, which
mounted to drown him. Was it fancy that showed him, on
the surface of the rising column, the mangled carcase of the
dog?
The chasm into which John Rex had fallen was shaped
like a huge funnel set up on its narrow end. The sides of this
funnel were rugged rock, and in the banks of earth lodged
here and there upon projections, a scrubby vegetation grew.
The scanty growth paused abruptly half-way down the gulf,
and the rock below was perpetually damp from the up-
thrown spray. Accident—had the convict been a Meekin, we
might term it Providence— had lodged him on the lowest of
these banks of earth. In calm weather he would have been
out of danger, but the lightning flash revealed to his terror-
sharpened sense a black patch of dripping rock on the side
of the chasm some ten feet above his head. It was evident
that upon the next rising of the water-spout the place where
he stood would be covered with water.
The roaring column mounted with hideous swiftness.
Rex felt it rush at him and swing him upward. With both
arms round the tree, he clutched the sleeves of his jacket
with either hand. Perhaps if he could maintain his hold
he might outlive the shock of that suffocating torrent. He
felt his feet rudely seized, as though by the hand of a gi-
ant, and plucked upwards. Water gurgled in his ears. His
arms seemed about to be torn from their sockets. Had the
strain lasted another instant, he must have loosed his hold;

10 For the Term of His Natural Life