Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/192

166 head and all, for what seemed an interminable length of time. At last she felt her head raised above the surface. “Keep it up—so!” was the order. The icy current more than once forced her from her feet,  causing her to slip under, and the atmosphere  of the place struck a chill to her very marrow. Once again the ground gave way beneath her, and she felt the man’s strong arm pulling her after him, while he swam in water  too deep for wading.

But the girl’s senses could no longer stand the strain of cold, fatigue and terror, and at  this point she suddenly became unconscious. How the rest of the journey was accomplished she could never imagine, for she knew no more till she came to herself in what  seemed to be some sort of narrow hallway. A door was opened and she was rudely thrust inside with the exclamation: “There!—at  length!—I thought I should never get thee  here!” Then the door was slammed to, and  loudly bolted.