And yet, so potent is the first law of nature that
even in the face of certain death, as she surely believed herself,
she clung tenaciously to life, and while she struggled to free
herself from the powerful clutches of the madman, she held her
breath against the final moment when the asphyxiating waters must
inevitably flood her lungs.
Through the frightful ordeal she maintained absolute control of
her senses so that, after the first plunge, she was aware that the
man was swimming with her beneath the surface. He took perhaps not
more than a dozen strokes directly toward the end wall of the pool
and then he arose; and once again she knew that her head was above
the surface. She opened her eyes to see that they were in a corridor
dimly lighted by gratings set in its roof--a winding corridor,
water filled from wall to wall.
Along this the man was swimming with easy powerful strokes, at the
same time holding her chin above the water. For ten minutes he swam
thus without stopping and the girl heard him speak to her, though
she could not understand what he said, as he evidently immediately
realized, for, half floating, he shifted his hold upon her so that
he could touch her nose and mouth with the fingers of one hand. She
grasped what he meant and immediately took a deep breath, whereat
he dove quickly beneath the surface pulling her down with him and
again for a dozen strokes or more he swam thus wholly submerged.
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