"IT'S EASY ENOUGH."

my grasp after trying how long I could stay; and towards the last, after finding that I could easily stay down a minute, I always rose with some small stones or a handful of pebbles from the bottom.

"I can go East and turn pearl diver now," I said, "if everything else fails; and, quite satisfied with the confidence acquired by my skill in diving, I prepared one night for a venture which rather chilled me as the time approached.

It was a mad plan, and I knew it. I felt that I was quite a monomaniac; but I was blindly determined, and one night found me, lantern-armed, and provided with matches, shut up in the well-house.

I had stolen out about one, with every nerve strung to the highest pitch, and a horrible feeling of dread sending a shiver through me; but I honestly believe that, if at that moment the danger of my task had been twice as great, the bull-dog obstinacy within me would have carried me through.

But the danger was great enough, I well knew, as I set down on the humid floor the load I had brought, and then lit the lantern, and placed it on the framework of the great winch. Then lighting a piece

of wax candle, I fixed that on the other side' of the well by letting a little of the wax drip on the stout rail.

"So far so good," I said to myself, as I resolutely drove back horrible suggestions, set my teeth, and threw off the ulster [ wore, to stand ready in an old football jersey and drawers.

I had thought out my plans to the smallest minutiæ, and made all my calculations; so that, feeling that my only chance for carrying out my task successfully was by going straight on without hesitation, I raised the load I had brought one by onea couple of fifty-six pound weights, and after seeing that the stop was in the winch, placed them ready in one of the buckets which I had drawn up level with the rail. Then, fastening a string to the lantern, I lowered it down till it was about five feet from the water, fastened the string, and taking out the stop, let the first bucket run down with the weights till I heard it kiss the water with a hollow, echoing splash. As the sound arose I thrust the stop into the cogs of the winch once more, and the bucket was stopped, as I could see, half in the water.

The next task was perilous, but nothing I felt to what was to come, as, mounting the rail, and climbing out on the apparatus, I seized one rope, reached out, caught the other, twisted my leg round, hung for a moment over the shaft, which. looked, if anything, more horrible from the dim light below, and let myself glide rapidly down.

It was the task of a very few moments, but long enough for me to be attacked by thoughts such as-suppose the rope brokesuppose the air was foul down belowsuppose I could not get back to the surface -answers to which came at once, for I knew that the rope would bear double my weight; that the lantern would not have burned in foul air; and that as to returning I had but

CC

to stand in the bucket when I reached it, and draw myself up by hauling the other rope.

No-impossible; I had fixed the machinery with the stop. The thought unnerved me for the moment, and then I laughed, as I recalled how often I had climbed a rope. Then I was level with the swinging lantern, my feet touched the water close by the partly-submerged lower wheel, and I checked myself to feel about and find, as I had anticipated, a broad resting-place, just below the surface, composed of slippery crossbeams.

to

Here I stopped for a few moments thinkingnot hesitating - as which side I should descend. And now, in spite of the dogged courage within me, I felt in full force the terrible risk I was about to run. It was one thing to plunge down into the open sea in broad daylight, holding one of those boulders; another to take a fifty-six pound weight from that bucket close by me, plant it by me on the beam, thrust my foot through the ring right up to my instep, and then lower myself off and let that weight drag me down into those horrible cold, black depths.

I shuddered with the shock of dread which ran through me, and then snapping my teeth together like an angry dog, I uttered a low laugh, which startled me again, as in my desperate fit I said

with live creatures, disturbed by my coming, and ascending rapidly from the depths to attack the intruder upon their home.

My foot glided along over the oaken beam on which I stood, but I held on by the rope and recovered myself, planted the weight down in the water by my feet, and holding up the ring thrust my right foot

through close up to the

instep.

"That will do," I thought, as I raised my toes, feeling that if I descended carefully it could not slip off till I lowered the fore part of my foot. "Now, lad, no silly fancies," I muttered. "A few long breaths, then one deep inhalation; down you go rapidly; then feel about for a minute and a half, find the package, slip your foot out of the ring

-no, you will be holding it then-keep your hands over your head in case you come up under the beam, and then hurrah for to-morrow."

It was a childish way of addressing myself, perhaps; but I felt bound to treat the matter lightly, so as to cloak the peril from my too active brain. Ready?" I said, as I kept on breathing slowly and deeply, preparatory to taking the long, deep, lasting breath.

66

"Yes," I said, mentally, and changing my hold to the other rope, I was about to lower myself into a sitting position on the beam, drawing that deep breath the while, when like lightning came the thought-"Suppose it is your last!" for a thrill shot down my left arm right to my heart, and I sprang back to my erect position wondering as the thrill

"Bah, what a poor soldier I should have made! Common workmen go through such risks every day as a matter of course. The jewels or

I did not finish my sentence, but bent down as I held on by the rope, and took one of the weights out of the bucket close by me; the water washing about and whishing against the slimy walls as if it were swarming

went on.

Were my muscles quivering like that? No; it was the rope which I held in my hand, literally throbbing. I looked up, and there far above me, dimly visible by the light of the candle I had left burning, I

could see something dark reaching out from the woodwork to the rope. The throbbing went on violently, and before I could grasp what it meant, the rope gave way in my hand, there was a peculiar rushing in the water, I lost my balance, my foot in the iron ring felt as if snatched off the slippery beam, and I was rushing down. through the black water rapidly toward the

bottom.

CHAPTER VI.

I SUPPOSE I must have struck out involuntarily, and in the act, as the water thundered in my ears and literally jarred me as if blows had been struck over my head, the weight glided from my foot and I rose to the surface choking, panting, and grasping wildly at the first object I touched. It was rope, and it gave way beneath my grasp. I caught at something again. It was a wheel and it turned round, but, as strange sounds, shouts, and cries reached my ears, I got hold of the cross beam, and somehow, by help of the wheel, managed to reach my old position, but crouching down and holding on for dear life.

"Below there!" shouted a familiar voice, but hollow and strange, "who is it?"

"I! Help! Help!" I gasped, now thoroughly unnerved.

"Right; can you hold on till we send you down a rope?

I did not answer for a few moments as I strove to realise my chances.

"Yes," I said hoarsely. "Don't be long." It seemed an age before the rope came, and during the terrible waiting time I listened to words of encouragement mingled with stern orders delivered in Lord Gurtleigh's voice.

me

Then came a cheer, and he shouted to

"Hold on, lad! Rope's being rigged over the wheel. I'm coming down."

"No, no," I shouted, rousing myself now from the apathy into which I had been fast sinking. "Send it down, and I'll make it fast."

Soon after a lantern began to descend, and

by its light I saw the loop of a rope gradually glide lower and lower till it reached me, when I was so numbed and cramped that I had hard work to get it over my head and arms. But I succeeded, and it must have spun round and tightened about my chest as I was hoisted up, for I was quite unable to help myself, and insensible by the time I reached the top.

When I opened my eyes again with an understanding brain, my old friend was seated by my bedside; and, after I had assured him that I was not going to die, he told me that he had been roused up by the head keeper throwing shots at his window; and, upon his opening it, the man told him that there was something wrong, for, passing near the back of the buildings, he had seen a light in the well-house through the little window.

"We were only just in time, Charley. Caught the scoundrel with the knife in his hand. He had just cut through the rope." "Who-who was it?" I cried. "Why, Brayson, of course!" "Then he was the thief!" I cried, excitedly, "and the jewels are there." "Jewels? Down the well? You were

after them!"

"Of course," I said, and I told him all. "Well," he said, as I finished my brief narrative, "I have heard about men being fit for Colney Hatch, and you're one!"

"Never mind that," I said, "if Lady Florry gets back her gems."

"And old Brayson is hung for trying to murder you," said Lord Gurtleigh. "But, I say, old fellow, I'm glad I came.

But Brayson was not hung, he only had a taste of penal servitude for the robbery of the jewels and also of some valuable plate, two packages secured in fine wire netting

being brought up after proper dredging arrangements had been made.

As for myself, I was none the worse for my submersion, save that my nerves were unsteady for some time, especially when I used to lie and think

"Suppose that keeper had not seen the light!"