"It was surging, boiling, lashing itself into fury against the walls of its prison, and looked like some sea let loose by the tempest, which, confined once more in limits too narrow for it, sought for freedom.
"And in this whirlpool I saw nothing—nothing; the dead bodies of my friends rose not to the surface, were nowhere to be seen. Some eddy, doubtless, had formed and held them captive below.
"Ah! there was no hesitation now. I have told you that I was mad with grief. I had but one wish—to join them, to be buried with them in their watery grave.
"But, at the very moment when my hands were loosening their grasp of the tree they had so eagerly clutched, at the very moment when my body hung over the abyss, I heard a voice. I stopped and listened.
"It was Ali calling me.
"What was he to me? More fortunate, more calculating than my companions, he doubtless had not taken refuge in the cavern and was saved.
"Once more I hung over the abyss, but fresh voices sounded on my ear, a few paces from me, as if from the ledge I had just left.
"I listened—it was Delange's voice—and then Périères spoke.
"How came they there, behind me, instead of being below my feet, at the bottom of the abyss? By what miracle had they been saved?
"I could not think—I imagined I was dreaming—I was mad.