but no one could hear her. The raft paused and teetered for an instant; then it pointed downward, almost straight, and the whole party, the raft, and the fish under the raft, plunged downward through the darkness on a cascade of tumbling water; down, down, down; the raft shot from under and the passengers shot off; in a twinkling they were going down the water-fall on their backs. Would they never reach the bottom? There did not seem to be any bottom; but—
In another moment, there were Aunt Amanda and Freddie (her arm still about him) standing on their feet in about twenty-four inches of quiet water on a solid bottom. Dark forms appeared, one after another, beside them, and almost at once all the party were standing together in a group, in about two feet of quiet water, on a solid bottom.
"I fear," said the voice of the Sly Old Codger, "that I have lost my hat."
They could see that they were in a great chamber, whose walls they could make out dimly on each side. They could not see the top of the water-fall, but they could see its lower part very plainly. Through the tumbling water of the fall, near the bottom, sunlight was shining. Behind the water was an opening some six feet high, and as the water fell across this opening the sunlight from without shone through it, making it glow with green and sparkle with white. The water-fall hung over this opening like a curtain.
"Well," said Aunt Amanda, "I'm pretty near drowned, and my clothes are a sight to behold. But I'm the captain of this expedition, and my orders is, that we go ashore."
The water proved to be shallow all about them, and they waded to a strip of dry ground beside the wall which rose at their left as they faced the fall.
Aunt Amanda, whose cane was gone, was assisted by Mr. Toby and Mr. Punch.
"Blamed if my hat ain't gone too," said Toby. "She was a good hat, I'll have to say that for her."
The party walked along the edge of the water, and came to the end wall of the chamber, opposite the fall. There lay the wreck of the raft, with the tail of the great fish sticking out from beneath.
"I fear," said the Sly Old Codger, "that the faithful creature has departed this life."