In a few minutes Dick and Bud were in the water, lariats held by those on "shore" tied around their waists; and the two boy ranchers were swimming toward the big rock in the middle of the pool. Lanterns at the edge of this strange underground body of water gave sufficient light to enable the swimmers, and the others, to see Nort now standing on the great boulder which emerged from the midst of the black water.
It was the plan of Bud and Dick to help Nort to swim back to where the others stood, they supporting him on either side. For though Nort was a better swimmer than his brother, in his weakened condition, hit on the head as he had said, he might suddenly collapse.
So also might Bud and Dick, or there might suddenly appear a swift current in the now quiet pool—that is, quiet beyond where the stream flowed in—and in that latter event the lariats would serve to pull them all to safety.
"Gee! I thought you were a goner!" gasped Dick, as he climbed out and clasped his brother by the hand.
"I would have been, only that I floated near this rock, and managed, half unconscious as I was, to grab hold of a projection and pull myself up," Nort answered. "That water came up so fast it scared me, and I slipped right into it."
"We saw you," said Bud, sitting down on the rock to get his wind, so he might be at his best in helping Nort on the return journey.
"It was—awful!" spoke Dick simply, and then he made no further reference to his mental agony.
"Well, are you ready to go back?" asked Bud, after a pause, in which interim they had called to those across the pool that the lost lad was all right.
"I'm ready, yes," was Nort's answer. "But I'd sort of like to see what this hard lever-like object is."
"Oh, yes," spoke Dick. "You said you had something hard to hold to. Let's have a look—if we only had a light," he added, for it was quite dark on the great rock in the midst of the black pool. The light of the lanterns did not brightly penetrate that far.