Suarez, too,
secured a stout branch, and passed a rope around it.
"Now, silence! and listen!" said Gray.
They soon detected a curiously subdued clamor from the inner recesses
of the cleft. At first almost indistinguishable, it gradually assumed
the peculiar attribute of immense volumes of distant sound, and filled
the ear to the exclusion of all else. It was like nothing any of them
had heard before; now it recalled the roar of a mighty waterfall, and
again its strange melody brought memories of a river in flood. But the
dominant note was the grinding noise of innumerable mill-stones. It
cowed them all. Even the dog was afraid.
"Guess we tied up just in time," exclaimed Gray, feeling the need of
speech. A little sob answered him. Elsie was beginning to admit the
sheer hopelessness of her undertaking.
"Now, cheer up, Miss Maxwell," said he. "All the water that is going
in must come out by the same road. At the worst, we can skate back the
way we came and take our chance. But it will soon be broad daylight,
and I'll answer for it that if Captain Courtenay is yet alive he is not
between us and the mouth of the inlet, or he would have contrived some
sort of racket to let us know his whereabouts.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390