What damage it did it is impossible to say, but it must have caused the creature some pain, for it instantly unwound itself from Dick’s body, the neck twisting and turning like a boa constrictor’s; all in an instant Dick found himself free, for the blanket was unwound by the twisting of the Plesiosaurus and Dick, in his shirt and trousers and stocking feet, swam away for dear life.
The Plesiosaurus made no attempt to reach out for him apparently, or, if it did, Dick knew nothing about it, but he swam on, possessed of the horrible fear of feeling those great teeth dug into his legs.
Nothing of the sort happened, but something else did, almost as serious.
Before he knew it Dick found himself suddenly caught in some undercurrent which seemed to draw him along with frightful rapidity down deeper and deeper into the lake.
Dick was a splendid swimmer—it would have been difficult to find a better one in a boy of his age.
He tried to turn aside out of the current to rise to the surface—to do anything to escape that awful suction, but it was all no use.
Naturally he gave himself up for lost and he surely would have been if relief had not come in a moment, for all at once Dick’s head came up out of the water, although he had sunk to a great depth.
But the suction continued and the current ran just as swiftly.
It was pitch dark. Dick could not make out where he was, but the rushing of the water seemed to be echoed back from rocks, which were close at hand, so he assumed that he must be in some cave.
On he flew—on—on for fully ten minutes. He had thrown himself on his back now and was resting comfortably enough, but, try all he would, he could not turn out of that terrible current, for he was in the subterranean outlet of the lake, one of those underground streams often found in the far West.