Clinging to the edge he gave Tom a warning word:
“Don’t delay a moment in following me.”
“I won’t.”
“Here goes, then!”
Will Bertram experienced a strange sensation as, relaxing his grasp, he shot vertically downwards.
His breath seemed taken away, and his hands, sweeping the bottom of the shute seemed to gather a thousand little slivers.
Then, with a gasp, he felt his body strike the water and become entirely submerged. He was chilled by the shock, but he puffed and struggled, and then clung at a rock and drew himself to the shore, breathless and exhausted.
Splash!
A second echoing plunge followed his own, and in the radiating illumination he made out a struggling figure in the water.
Tom Dalton had followed his example, and just in time, for a crash told of a floor giving way in the structure they had vacated.