“Are you going to try to swim?” said the doctor gravely.
I nodded.
“That’s right,” he said. “I shall do the same. We might reach some ledge lower down.”
He said that word might with a slow solemn emphasis that made me shudder, for I knew he felt that it was hopeless; but all the same he granted that it was our duty to try.
The doctor now bent down over the water, and I could see that it was rising faster than ever.
All at once Jimmy seemed to rouse himself, throwing up his waddy with his foot and catching it in his hand.
“No water go down,” he said. “Mass Joe, Mass Jack, doctor, an all a let get up higher; no get wet. Top along get drown, die, and bunyip pull um down an eat um!”
“I’m afraid escape is impossible, Jimmy,” I said sadly.
“No know what um say!” cried the black impatiently.
“Can’t get away,” I said.