She couldn't hear, but I think she must have understood from the movement of my lips, for she nodded again and handed me the torch. As our hands touched, she suddenly came close to me and kissed me. Then she stood back, looking at the brown froth of water that filled the cave. She stood hesitating for a second and then quickly spreading her hands, dived in.
I saw her head for a second in the scum as the water bore her towards the exit. Her hair hung like strands of seaweed in the bubbling froth, and her face was white against the dark, heaving bulk of the water. Then she dived.
I waited, but she did not reappear My ears suddenly began to sing. There was a great roaring behind me. I half-turned. I knew what it was. I knew that the water had risen above sea level, that it was in the adit and roaring down towards the sea. I crammed my helmet tight on my head and with the torch still in my hands, dived straight out for the entrance.
As I hit the water there was a great roaring sound in my ears. I could see nothing, though the torch was still in my hands. I kept my head down, thrusting deeper with my legs and let the water do the rest. I felt myself flung forward. My head fetched up with a terrific jolt against rock. Only my helmet saved me from having my skull stove in. My back was keel-hauled along a slanting face of rock. I felt myself being sucked down and down. My hand struck a rock. The pain of it jarred along my arms. Then I seemed quite stationary, yet I knew I was being thrust along by the weight of water behind me. My ears stabbed with pain. A great band tightened about my chest. The desire for air became my whole world.
Then I was being pushed upwards. I thrust up with my hands and feet. An instant later I was gasping on the surface. A wave lifted me and broke with a crash. The backwash of it carried me clear of the dark shadow of the cliffs, gasping in a smother of foam. I swallowed water and choked with the salt of it. The next wave bore down on me, broke and carried me struggling towards the cliff. My feet touched rock for an instant. Then the backwash carried me clear again.
I tore off the helmet which was still jammed tight on my head. Then I took a deep breath and, burying my head in the surf, summoned my last ounce of energy to crawl clear of the break of the waves. One, five, ten minutes — I don't know how long it took me to get clear. My clothes clung to me, hampering my movements and the seething welter of water seemed intent on flinging me against the cliffs.
But at last I was clear and trod water, gently rising and falling with the waves. Behind me the dark wall of the cliffs towered into the night, frilled at the base with a raging inferno of surf. I began to shout, but my voice was lost in the roar of the surf spilling across the rocks.
Then I found I still had the torch. It was in my trouser pocket. When I'd put it there I don't remember, probably just before I started to swim clear of the break. I switched it on. It still worked. The friendly beam swept across the heaving seas. An instant later I heard a feint cry. An arm showed upthrust from the top of the wave a little further out. I swam on. Kitty met me. She had a cut on the side of her head and one shoulder was bleeding. But she was treading water easily and smiled as I swam up.
'All right?' I asked her.
She nodded. 'You're bleeding,' she said.