Dick hesitated just one instant—no more.
Without even stopping to throw off his coat he took a header into the boiling pot, disappearing like a flash.
It seemed a piece of mad folly.
How could he hope to rescue Charley under such circumstances as these?
But Dick never gave that a thought. He would have jumped in just the same if he had known that he was jumping to his death.
Down he went—down—down—drawn deeper every second by that terrible pull.
“I’m a goner,” he thought “I can’t help myself,” and his heart began to fail him as he was still drawn on and on, deeper into the boiling pot.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WONDERFUL CAVERN.
Holding his breath and still being dragged downward by that terrible suction, Dick Darrell gave himself up for lost.
His only hope was that his previous experience under the lake might be repeated.