The two pushed open the inner door and rushed along the pathway amongst the shrubs.
A moment later they came in sight of the pool with the fountain playing in the middle; and there they saw Alondra—or, rather, his head, for that was all there was above the water—with a look of terrible, deadly horror upon his face.
'Help me quickly!' he gasped. 'Some awful thing is clinging round me and is dragging me down! Your knives! Get out your knives! But be careful, or you may get drawn in yourselves—both of you!'
The two friends acted upon the hints thus given; and, drawing their knives and joining hands, Gerald went boldly down the steps and seized hold of the young prince just as he was being drawn completely under the water.
The task of setting him free, however, proved a tougher one than they had expected. The clinging leaves, as though directed by some dreadful, sinister intelligence, closed upon Gerald's extended arm, and, exercising a strength and tenacity which had about it something almost superhuman, endeavoured to drag him in too.
A terrible struggle for dear life ensued between the three, on the one side, and the horrible, silent power which they had to fight against, on the other.
Gerald managed to free one of Alondra's arms, and gave him his own knife, taking Jack's in place of it. The two then hacked and slashed at the slimy, slippery, but wonderfully tough leaves. As fast as they cut themselves free from some, others laid hold of them; and it seemed at one time as though all three would be dragged bodily into the water.
Just then Jack caught sight of a coil of strong rope lying upon the floor in a corner, and he made a dart and possessed himself of it. In a trice he had passed one end to Gerald, and secured the other round one of the columns supporting the roof.
Gerald, in his turn, managed to slip the end round Alondra and pass it back to Jack, who caught hold of it, and, standing himself on the steps out of reach, hauled with all his might. This enabled the two who were struggling in the water—for by this time Gerald had also been drawn in—to use both hands. Little by little, step by step, they struggled backwards, until at last they reached the water's edge and were free.
Panting and exhausted, the three sat down on a low marble balustrade, and looked first at the pool, then at one another. Then they stared once more at the treacherous pool, where all now was silent and still, save for the bubbling and splashing of the water as it fell from the fountain.