Page 230 - The snake's pass

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218 THE snake's pass.
raising something from the bog. He prefers to trust
us, whom he knows to be gentlemen, than to let his
secret be shared in with anyone else."
Dick got out on the end of the plank, holding the
grapnel and a coil of the rope in his hand, whilst the
end of the coil was held by Murdock.
I could see from the appearance of the bog that some-
one had been lately working at it, for it was all broken
about as though to make a hole in it, and a long pole
that lay beside where I stood was covered with wet and
slime.
Dick poised the grapnel carefully, and then threw it
out. It sank into the bog, slowly at first, but then more
quickly ; an amount of rope ran out which astonished
me, for I knew that the bog must be at least so deep.
Suddenly the run of the rope ceased, and we knew
that the grapnel had gone as far as it could. Murdock
and I then held the rope, and Dick took the pole and
poked and beat a passage for it through the bog up to
the rock where we stood. Then he, too, joined us, and
we all began to pull.
For a few feet we pulled in the slack of the rope.
Then there was a little more resistance for some three
or four feet, and we knew that the grapnel was dragging
on the bottom. Suddenly there was a check, and
Murdock gave a suppressed shout:
" We have got it ! I feel it ! Pull away for your
"
lives !
We kept a steady pull on the rope. At first there