“Nonsense, Tom!” I said with gloomy cheerfulness. “It’s all give and take out here. Why, you saved me from the crocodiles.”
“Cuss ’em! Don’t talk about ’em here, Mas’r Harry,” said Tom in a whisper. “We don’t know but what there’s horrible ones living in these dreadful waters. That there cramp taking me in the leg like that made me feel as if one had got hold of me. I’m a horrible coward, Mas’r Harry, that I am.”
“Tom,” I said, “this place is enough to unnerve any one.”
Then we were silent, for the strange echoings of our voices had an unearthly, terrible effect upon our nerves; and more than once I started at the grotesque shadow of myself upon the wall. The roar of the great waterfall came humming through the rift above our heads, while below the waters hissed, and bubbled, and lapped against the rocks in a curious, whispering, awe-inspiring fashion; and then moved by the same impulse we both took off and wrung all the moisture we could out of our things before standing shivering before the lights, one of which was already beginning to gutter down and threatened to become extinct.
Upon examining our wallets we found that we each had a couple of candles left, but our provision was very low; and the question now arose as to the next proceeding.
“Won’t do to lie down and die, Mas’r Harry,” said Tom. “I’m ever so much warmer now.”
“No, Tom,” I said, “we’ll fight to the last; but what are we to do?”
“Well, Mas’r Harry, I’d first of all get up into the crack of a passage up there before the lights go out, for there’s no knowing how high this water may rise; and if I ain’t to see daylight no more, but to die here, I should like to die dry and warm.”
“Don’t talk about death, Tom,” I said with a shudder. “Let’s fight for life to the last, and, as you say, we’ll climb up to the rift.”
One candle burned out as we tried to move it, and deferring the lighting of another for reasons of economy, we climbed to the narrow crack-like passage and went along it about thirty yards before Tom, who was first, turned round in a part where the passage widened a few feet.